Police charge Kerala legislator with assaulting canteen staff
Police in Kerala yesterday charged independent legislator P C George for beating up a canteen boy over a delay in serving him lunch.
They filed the charge-sheet in a magistrate’s court here stating George had abused and assaulted Manu, an employee at the legislators’ hostel here in February last year.
The police charge-sheet states the lawmaker ordered lunch in his room around 1.30pm and when Manu reached the legislator’s room, George was on the phone abusing the canteen staff for the 20-minute delay in serving him food.
The charge-sheet claims that when George saw Manu, he slapped him on the face and hurled abuses at the canteen staffer.
The legislator’s aide is also alleged to have joined in attacking Manu. The police claims Manu suffered injury to his eyes and lips.
It was claimed that the legislator had a habit of misbehaving with the canteen staff by raking up minor issues.
George had earlier maintained that he got angry after his lunch was delayed by 40 minutes and he had not assaulted anybody over the matter.
There are several instances of the lawmaker misbehaving in public with helpless public utility staff. A couple of years ago a video of him abusing a state electricity board official had gone viral.
Yesterday another video surfaced showing the legislator abusing staff at a highway toll plaza and destroying a barrier after being demanded a road levy.
A surveillance camera grab shows George getting out of a luxury car and breaking a barrier at the toll plaza on the national highway. The legislator had been on his way to Kochi from Thrissur when the highway toll plaza staff stopped his car on the night of July 17 at a booth manned mostly by workers from other states who didn’t know the Kerala politician.
George later claimed that as member of the legislative assembly he had the privilege of not having to pay road levy. His car had not been allowed to cross the toll plaza despite sporting a ‘MLA’ board, he claimed.
The police said they had received a complaint from the toll plaza owners against the foulmouthed legislator notorious for violent behaviour in public. The police, however, did not register a case since the toll booth officials later said they have no complaint against the legislator.
In yet another instance, on June 29 last year George had brandished a pistol at plantation workers for allegedly shouting slogans against him over a land dispute.
An audiotape is also in circulation on social media in which the legislator purportedly engages in a verbal spat shouting abuses at a man for speaking on behalf of a ‘low caste’.
During the previous government’s survival on a wafer-thin majority, George drew criticism by appointing a 30-member staff as chief whip of the government with a Cabinet rank whose duty was just to give whips when the assembly was in session.
Though he had no office, the “aides” now draw a life-long pension after their five-year term.
After quitting Kerala Congress (Mani), George now leads his own outfit called Janapakssham Party limited to his Poonjar constituency.
George had earlier maintained that he got angry after his lunch was delayed by 40 minutes and he had not assaulted anybody over the matter