Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai on Friday moved the high court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the police for his speech on the Sabarimala protests in Kozhikode. Pillai said to MyNation, "CPM and Congress are targeting me and have filed a fake complaint against me in the court. I too moved the high court seeking to quash the FIR."

The first information report was registered in Kozhikode based on a complaint filed by a journalist named Shybin alleging that Pillai, while speaking in a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state council, made a controversial statement urging people to protest and not allow the entry of women. 

In his speech, Pillai had urged activists to protest against the entry of women of menstrual age into the hill shrine. In his petition, Pillai claimed that he had not made any controversial statement with an intention to cause any fear or alarm among any section of the public, to induce a person to commit an offence against the state or against public tranquillity.

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The BJP president also presented the digital evidence of his speech before the court. He alleged that he had clearly said at the gathering that the protest should be peaceful, and not like a “violent war”. But these aspects were taken away by the media, which published an edited version of his speech, he alleged.

Pillai was charged under section 505 (1) (B) of the IPC (intent to incite or which is likely to incite persons to commit any offence), a non-cognisable offence, in connection with his November 4 speech. He also alleged that the views expressed by him in an exclusive party function would never attract IPC section 505.

Earlier, Pillai had revealed that the decision to close the temple when rituals are violated at Sabarimala was taken by the thantri after discussing it with him.