PC George held in sexual assault case

Controversial Kerala politician P C George was on Saturday arrested here on the basis of a sexual assault complaint filed by an accused in the solar panel case, two months after he was arrested and released on bail for hate speech.

The seventy-year-old George, who represented the Poonjar constituency in the state Assembly for 33 years, was taken into custody by the Museum police from a guest house in the capital city this afternoon in a dramatic move.

At that time, the senior politician was being grilled by a team of Crime Branch personnel in connection with a conspiracy allegedly hatched to defame the Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in smuggling charges levelled by gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh.

According to police sources, the sudden move to arrest George was made based on a secret statement given by the accused and according to a written complaint filed directly by her at the local police sta

PC George

tion here in this regard.

As per the complaint, the senior politician had allegedly behaved in a way insulting her modesty on February 10 at a guest house here and sent her indecent messages in mobile phone. Soon after filing an FIR over the charges, a team led by the Cantonment Assistant Commissioner took George into custody. He has been charged under IPC Section 354 ( assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 354 (a) (sexual harassment), they said.

However, George rejected the charges and claimed that he had not done anything indecent and it was a false complaint.