Thiruvananthapuram: The arrest of a former state police chief of Kerala, T.P. Senkumar, has been recorded in a case pertaining to the charge that he had instigated religious hatred through some of his statements.
He was released shortly thereafter on a bail bond.
The Kerala High Court had earlier granted him anticipatory bail, and had ruled that in case of his arrest, he could be let off on bail on certain conditions.
Senkumar is accused of fanning religious hatred through a statement he gave in a media interview. However, the former state police chief had alleged that an online media house had edited his speech before releasing it.
Senkumar also submitted that he had only made a friendly conversation and that he had not given permission to record the conversation. But the cybercrime police cell went ahead with registering the case against him.
The former police chief added he had not made any statement of religious hatred but had only pointed out some issues, using statistics. He said he was only responding to the questions of the media person using some documents of the government.
Senkumar had been removed from the post of police chief shortly after the ruling Communist Party of India Marxist came to power in May 2016, on multiple grounds including inefficiency in carrying out his job.
However, the Indian Police Service officer took the matter to court and won the litigation against the state government to return to the post of state police chief shortly before his retirement.
