Mumbai Police journal prints apology for cop's poem on Azad Maiden violence

Mumbai: The latest edition of Mumbai police’s in house journal Samwad which came out today morning, carried an unconditional apology by female police inspector Sujata Patil, whose poem had sparked off a controversy. Traffic police inspector (Matunga division) Sujata Patil’s controversial poem in an earlier issue of the in-house police journal, had described last year’s Azad Maidan protesters as “snakes” and “traitors”, whose hands should have been “chopped off”. Patil had already apologised in writing, but today it was published in the latest edition of ‘Samwad’, police sources said. She did not intend to hurt anybody’s religious sentiments or any religion through her poem, she wrote in the journal. Joint Police Commissioner (Administration) Hemant Nagrale who is also Samwad’s editor and publisher, has stated in writing that Patil had already apologised and she did not intend to hurt anybody’s sentiments. [caption id=“attachment_598575” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Azad Maidan violence. IBN-Live[/caption] “I too agree with her. Samwad is a platform to encourage the creativity of policemen and it is circulated among them,” he wrote in the journal’s latest issue. Patil’s poem which was published in an earlier issue of Samwad read, “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 bhaichare 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”. Her poem, which also suggested that the police ought to have played goliyon ki holi (Sprayed the protestors with bullets), triggered off a huge controversy and prompted Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh to order an inquiry. On August 11 last year, a demonstration called to protest alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar had turned violent, resulting in the death of two people, injuries to scores, including women police personnel, who were also molested as well as massive destruction of property. PTI