Days after being at large, George Ponnaiah, who was a priest in Tamil Nadu, was finally got arrested on Saturday in Madurai. He was arrested on the grounds of delivering a hate speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He also had invited controversy for allegedly degrading the Hindu Gods in his statement. 

Ponnaiah is a consultant to an NGO Jananayaga Christhuva Peravai Amaipu in Kanniyakumari. According to reports, Ponnaiah had made derogatory remarks against the Prime Minister, Tamil Nadu Ministers, and Hindu Gods on July 18 while addressing a forum in Arumanai, Kanniyakumari. Expressing outrage at his comments, several Hindu organizations had demanded the police to arrest Ponnaiah and it has been reported that nearly 30 complaints were filed in Kanniyakumari and many other districts in Tamil Nadu. 

He was addressing at a forum that was convened by minority organizations in memory of Stan Swamy. He went on to slam the DMK party for ignoring the minority organizations. He cited that DMK had ignored the minorities after winning their votes in the recently-held state assembly polls. In his speech, Ponnaiah said, "We had campaigned in the areas where politicians can't enter and we had urged everyone to vote for DMK and that the distress would be gone if DMK comes to power." 

"But, within 60 days after coming to power, we were made to protest for our rights", the priest added. He further said that the votes that the ADMK had gained were the dole provided by the minority communities. He went on to slam Tamil Nadu Ministers Sekar Babu and Mano Thangaraj and he also had sparked outrage through his comment on Bharat Mata and Hindu Gods and delivering a hate speech against the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister. 

After his comments, several complaints were made at the police stations against him following which he had absconded. The police had filed an FIR under seven sections of the Indian Penal Code against the priest and special teams were formed to nab him. Days after the search, the police had arrested the priest on Saturday in Kallikudi, Madurai district. Ponnaiah was taken under custody for further investigations into the case.