Activists move court over ‘hate’ poem by cop

A petition filed on Thursday urged the Bombay HC to direct the filing of an FIR against Satyapal Singh, Mumbai commissioner of police, Hemant Nagrale, joint commissioner of police, administration, and inspector Sujata Patil, who had written a poem titled Azad Maidan in the November 2012 issue of the police monthly bulletin Samvaad. HT reports.

A petition filed on Thursday urged the Bombay high court to direct the filing of an FIR against Satyapal Singh, Mumbai commissioner of police, Hemant Nagrale, joint commissioner of police, administration, and inspector Sujata Patil, who had written a poem titled Azad Maidan in the November 2012 issue of the police monthly bulletin Samvaad.

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It claimed that the poem was allegedly offensive to the Muslim community.

Kandivli resident Ameen Idrisi and activist and Powai-resident Nazar Siddhiqui, who was injured during the Azad Maidan protests and the subsequent firing in August 2012, have moved the petition.

Siddhiqui was later arrested in the case and was subsequently released on bail by the high court.

The petition urged the court to direct registering of an FIR under section 295 A, which pertains to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or belief, section 298 (uttering words etc with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and sections 66 A and 67-A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.