The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the Mumbai police to file a detailed reply as to what action it had taken on a complaint registered against inspector Sujata Patil. Patil had written a provocative poem on the Azad Maidan riots of last year.
A division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Justice A.P. Bhangale was hearing a criminal writ petition filed by two accused in the Azad Maidan riots case, Ameen Idrisi and Nazar Siddique, demanding that action be taken against Ms Patil and other officers involved in publishing and circulation of the poem.
While hearing the matter, the court questioned the state as to what action the police had taken on the complaint registered by Idrisi seeking action against Ms Patil and other top officers. However, public prosecutor Revati Dere informed the court that Ms Patil had apologised for the poem.
Directing the city police to file a reply, the court adjourned the matter to February 18 for further hearing.
On August 11 last year, a group of protesters carried out a rally against the atrocities conducted against fellow Muslims in Assam and Burma. The rally had suddenly turned violent, resulting in the death of two people and injuring several policeman and civilians, including women police personnel.
Ms Patil, inspector of police (traffic division), had written a poem for the Mumbai police magazine Samwad titled Azad Maidan on the riots. The petitioners claim that the poem has hurt their religion and has offended their community. They refer to the magazine as “an illegal hatred-filled magazine” that hurts “the basic faith of Muslim and questions the patriotism of the alleged accused Muslim youth of Azad Maidan case.”