Muzaffarnagar School Case: What We Know So Far

A massive controversy erupted on Saturday (26 August) over a viral video in which a school teacher in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar was allegedly seen asking students to slap their Muslim classmate.

As per reports, the incident took place in Khubbapur village under the jurisdiction of Mansurpur police station on Thursday (August 24) when a student got his multiplication table wrong.

The class teacher, who is a handicapped woman, instructed other kids in the class to slap him.

She was identified as Tripta Tyagi, the owner of the Neha Public School.

According to an Indian Express report, both the police and the education authorities are exploring action against the teacher as well as Neha Public School, which she owns and where the incident occurred.

"I have declared jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai..." the teacher was heard saying in the camera while she called the rest of the class one after the other to take turns hitting the Muslim student.

In the viral video, the students took turns slapping their fellow student as the teacher encouraged them to "hit him harder".

In one instance, she also asked one of the students to "hit him on his waist" after he had already slapped the Muslim student.

In a statement, Satyanarayan Prajapat, Superintendent of Police (City), Muzaffarnagar, said: “Today, Mansurpur police station received a video wherein a woman teacher was ordering students of a class to beat a child for not learning multiplication tables. There were some objectionable comments too,".

"When we investigated, we found that the woman was ‘declaring’ in the video that Mohammedan students get spoiled when their mothers don’t pay attention to their studies. The basic education officer has been informed and departmental action will be taken against the teacher," Prajapat added, Indian Express reported.

The video has triggered a massive outrage on social media. Politicians across the party lines including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, AIMIM's Asaddudin Owaisi and RLD's Jayant Kumar also condemned the incident.

Taking cognisance of the incident, Priyank Kanoongo, the Chief of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), said that the child rights body has issued order for action to be taken against the teacher.

Kanoongo also urged people not to reveal the identity of a boy by sharing the video.

Meanwhile, the accused teacher, Tripta Tyagi, had denied that her action was communal in nature,

Tyagi said she asked some students to slap him because the boy had not been doing his homework. 

"There was pressure from the child's parents to be strict with him. I am handicapped, so I made some students slap him so that he would start doing his homework," she said.

She alleged the video was edited to give the whole episode a communal angle.

"The child's cousin was sitting in the class. The video was recorded by him which was later distorted," she said, referring to offensive words she was heard using against a community in the video.

Tyagi said it was a "minor issue" that had been blown out of proportion after the video clip went viral.

"This wasn't my intention. I am accepting my mistake, but this was unnecessarily turned into a big issue", she said.

Aravind Mallappa Bangari, District Magistrate, Muzaffarnagar said that a case has been registered against the teacher. 

"The parents were initially not agreeing to give a complaint but this morning they gave a complaint to the local police station, and it has been registered. Legal action will be taken in the case," Bangari said, reports NDTV.

It should be noted that the victim’s father had earlier told local reporters that he won’t send his child to the school nor is he planning to file a case.

“I will not send my child to that school again and they will return the fee that I have submitted. A settlement has been reached that no complaint would be filed. The teacher has created animosity between the children,” the boy's father was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.