The Uttar Pradesh Police has booked the teacher of Neha Public School, in Muzzafarnagar who asked students in a class to slap a fellow student as punishment for reportedly being inconsistent in his academics.
The teacher, Tripta Tyagi, has been booked for a non-cognizable offence under sections 504 (punishment for insulting someone), and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.
The case was booked based on the complaint of the student’s father who had earlier refused to file a complaint in the case. The father reached an agreement with the school and withdrew his child from the institution as the administration returned his fee.
Outrage followed the undated video that surfaced on social media on August 24, accusing the teacher, Tripti Tyagi, of targeting a child who belongs to the Muslim community.
In the video that surfaced on social media, the teacher is heard, saying “I have declared jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai…” However, what she says further remains unclear.
The incident garnered criticism from prominent politicians in the country.
While speaking to media reporters, the teacher defended her actions and claimed that the video had been deliberately edited where some of her words were trimmed out.
“The video that was made viral, was edited and cut. I had no such intention. He (the child) had not done his homework properly for the last 2 months. I am handicapped I can’t get up so it compelled me to make students beat him up in order to correct him,” she claimed.
She further went on to say that there was pressure from the parents of the child to be strict with him.
When questioned about the religious statement she made, she said, “I that Muhamdan mothers must not take their kids to their uncles’ homes as the exam is coming up and then students don’t perform well in the school. But they cut this video and took the ‘Muhamdan’ word. I had no such intentions.”
Meanwhile, Muzaffarnagar police have released a statement on X, formerly Twitter, where they assured action against the teacher.
“We have received a video clip on social media where a female teacher is asking classmates of a student to hit him for being unable to learn a multiplication table,” stated the Superintendent of Police, Satyanarayan Prajapat.
“In the same video, the teacher makes an objectionable comment. We have launched an investigation into the matter and spoke to the school principal. We learned that the teacher made a declaration that “the mothers of Muslim students who do not pay heed to the child’s studies are destroyed.” The same has been corroborated by the person who made the video,” he added.
The child and parents are being given counselling by the child welfare department to ensure that the incident does not affect him mentally.
