Petition seeking FIR against police for 'hate' poem dismissed

The Bombay High Court today dismissed a petition seeking to register an FIR against police for a 'hate' poem appearing in a police journal in the backdrop of last year's Azad Maidan violence stating that the petitioner could make a private complaint before a magistrate.
Justices Abhay Oka and A P Bhangale, dismissing the petition filed by Ameen Idrisi, who is associated with an NGO Islam-e-Hind, observed that as per Supreme Court guidelines, high courts should not entertain such pleas as the complainant has the liberty to file a private complaint before a magistrate.
They asked the petitioner to exhaust all remedies available in law first before approaching the high court.

The police too had, in a communication on February 8, conveyed to the petitioner that no case had been made out.
Furthermore, the court noted that lady police officer Sujata Patil had apologised for the controversial 'hate' poem in the subsequent issue of Magazine 'Samvad' mentioning that it was not meant to hurt religious sentiments of anyone.
The poem, titled 'Azad Maidan', referred to the rioters at Azad Maidan last August as 'snakes who dishonoured women' with regard to molestation of women police officers by miscreants.
Idrisi and Nazar Mohammed Siddique, one of those injured in the riots, purportedly by police bullets, had moved the high court seeking registration of an offence against senior officials including DGP and Principal Secretary to the government of Maharashtra for the poem.