Petition in Bombay HC against top cops over poem

A petition was today filed in the Bombay high court seeking direction to the city police to register an FIR against Mumbai police chief and others over a poem in their house journal which termed last year's Azad Maidan protesters as "snakes" and "traitors" whose hands should be "chopped off".

The petition would come up for hearing Friday before Justices Abhay Oak and Ashok Bhangale, petitioners' lawyer Ejaz Naqvi said.

The petitioners -- Ameen Mustafa Idrisi, who runs an NGO 'Muslim-e-Hind', and Nazar Mohammed Siddique, one of the arrested accused in Azad Maidan violence case and now out on bail -- have sought registration of FIR against Commissioner Satyapal Singh, Joint Police Commissioner (Administration) Hemant Nagarale, and woman inspector Sujata Patil, who penned the verse, publisher and other unnamed "conspirators".

The publication of the controversial poem in the journal had embarrassed the police who had expressed their readiness to offer unconditional apology. With an apology yet to be tendered, Idrisi and Siddique have moved the court.

"Hausla buland tha, izzat lut rahi thi...himmat ki gaddaron ne Amar Jyoti ko haath lagane ki, kaat dete haath unke toh faryad kisi ki bhi na hoti...Saanp ko doodh pila kar, baat kare hain hum bhai-chare ki. (Their morale was high, (women) were being dishonoured. The traitors had the audacity to touch Amar Jawan Jyoti. Had we cut off their hands nobody would have complained. We feed milk to the snakes and then talk of harmony," read the poem.

The author further suggested that the cops should have played "goliyon ki holi".

The poem titled "Azad Maidan" by Patil, an inspector in traffic police posted at Matunga, was published recently in the police department's house journal "Samvad".

The petitioners had earlier filed a complaint with the police seeking the guilty to be booked under sections 295(A) (Maliciously insulting the religion), 298 (uttering or putting such words which insults religion), 504 (insult to provoke breach of peace, 505 (false statement), 120(B)(criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.