In a similar incident to the Muzaffarnagar school row, a school teacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal was arrested on Thursday, September 28, for allegedly instructing a Class 5 Muslim student to slap a Hindu classmate as a punishment for not answering a question, news agency PTI reported citing the police. In the latest incident, which took place on Tuesday at a private school in Dugawar village under the Asmoli police station limits in Sambhal, the teacher allegedly incited communal hatred by engaging two children. A police official had said the victim’s father has lodged a complaint saying that the incident has hurt his son’s religious sentiments. He claimed that the class teacher got his son slapped by a Muslim student after he could not answer a question asked by her.
Based on the complaint, an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc.) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) was lodged against the accused teacher, additional SP Shrish Chandra told PTI.
Last month, a similar incident came to light from Muzaffarnagar’s Khubbapur village where a private school teacher, Tripta Tyagi, had got a Muslim boy repeatedly slapped in the classroom by his Hindu classmates for allegedly not doing homework. A video of the incident had gone viral on social media. A case was registered against the woman teacher under IPC sections 323 (voluntary causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace). In the viral video, students could be seen taking turns to slap the Muslim boy who was standing in front of the class crying.