SC seeks report from police in Muzaffarnagar child slap incident
A bench led by justice AS Oka sought steps taken to investigate the case and measures for protecting the victim and his family
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a report from the Muzaffarnagar police in Uttar Pradesh regarding the investigation and protection of the victim child in connection with a case lodged against a woman teacher, who allegedly encouraged her students to slap a classmate and made communal remarks at a private school.
A bench led by justice AS Oka sought steps taken to investigate the case and measures for protecting the victim and his family.
The matter will be heard next on September 25. The order was passed on a petition filed by Tushar Gandhi.
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The FIR (first information report) in the case was lodged on August 25, a day after a purported video of the incident created an outrage on social media.
The teacher, identified as Tripta Tyagi, of Neha Public School in Khubbapur village under Mansoorpur police station of Muzaffarnagar, was seen in a 34-second video, directing her students to slap their fellow Muslim classmate for failing to learn multiplication tables.
She also allegedly declared that children of a certain faith whose parents do not pay attention to their children should be taught a lesson. HT cannot verify the authenticity of the video.
Superintendent of police (SP) (city) of Muzaffarnagar, Satyanarayan said on August 26 that a case was registered against the teacher under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the complaint of the boy’s father. He said other elements would be included in the case on the basis of the findings of the investigation and added that prima facie the teacher’s intention did not seem malafide.
Speaking to HT on phone earlier, the boy’s father said that his two sons studied in the same school, but he will now send them to some other school, showing his resentment to the teacher’s act.
Several leaders including former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Choudhary denounced the incident on X (formerly known as Twitter).
District magistrate of Muzaffarnagar Arvind Malappa Bangari said that a team of child welfare committee was sent to the boy’s house in Khubbapur village of Khatauli area to conduct counselling for the boy.
He said that Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) had also been directed to conduct an enquiry into the case.
Meanwhile, Tripta Tyagi also came forward with her statement and said, “I made a mistake by getting the child beaten up by fellow students. I am handicapped and couldn’t get up, so I asked the students to slap the child”. She also claimed that the video had been tampered with.
