New Delhi: Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district Thursday arrested a school teacher, identified as Shaista (identified by a single name only) in the FIR, for “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language” among other accusations, after she allegedly instructed a Muslim student to slap his Hindu classmate, after the latter failed to recall a lesson taught by her previously.
Both students are minors and study in the same class at St. Anthony’s Senior Secondary School in Dugawer, Asmoli, which is part of Sambhal district.
The case is similar to one reported from UP’s Muzaffarnagar last month, where Trupta Tyagi, a teacher at a private school, had allegedly made Hindu students slap a Muslim classmate for not doing his homework.
According to Nitin Tyagi, father of the Sambhal boy who was allegedly slapped, the incident took place on Tuesday. Talking to ThePrint over phone, Tyagi claimed, “My son, a class 5 student, was asked to recall a lesson which he failed to do. Another student who belongs to a different community [Muslim] was asked to recall the same lesson and he did it successfully. After this, the class teacher [Shaista] asked the other student to slap my son, to ensure that he remembers his lesson in the future”.
According to Tyagi, when he returned home that evening, he was told by his wife that his son was not feeling well. On further questioning, the boy shared the details of the alleged incident with him.
Tyagi, a father of four, said it was after witnessing his son’s “demoralisation” that he decided to file a written complaint against the teacher, two days after the incident. The complaint was registered Thursday at Asmoli police station and the teacher was arrested the same day. Though the FIR also mentions the minor student who allegedly slapped Tyagi’s son, no action has been taken against him yet, police sources told ThePrint.
The teacher has been booked under sections 153-A (promoting enmity…) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). ThePrint has a copy of the FIR.
Confirming the arrest, Santosh Kumar Singh Chandel, circle officer, Asmoli, told ThePrint over phone that “the authenticity of the claims are being looked at”
“The allegation that the teacher asked a student of another community to beat the victim is being looked at and the full picture will come out in the open very soon,” he added.
ThePrint also reached the family of the accused, Shaista, who told ThePrint that the teacher was of the opinion that an “unnecessary issue” had been created of an act that was committed purely for the purpose of punishing a student who didn’t know his lessons.
“I had a word with her [the accused] after the controversy erupted and she told me that she did it for punishment. There is no angle of religion in the case and an issue has been raked up unnecessarily out of this,” Jamal Ali, who identified himself as the accused’s cousin. told ThePrint over phone.
ThePrint has also reached the principal at St. Anthony’s Senior Secondary School over phone for comment on the incident. The report will be updated once a comment is received.
Meanwhile, ThePrint has learnt that the accused has been suspended by the school’s management.
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‘Son’s morale dipped to zero’
Last month, a case was reportedly registered against a woman teacher in Muzaffarnagar under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), after she allegedly asked her Hindu students to hit a Muslim classmate, for not doing his homework.
A purported video of the incident had reportedly gone viral after being shared on social media.
While the father of the Muslim boy, a student at the school in Muzaffarnagar’s Khubbapur village had also reportedly complained against the teacher, Trupta, both sections under which she was accused, are non-cognizable offenses, which are bailable, and do not necessitate immediate arrest, pending a warrant.
The teacher had meanwhile reportedly claimed that there was no communal intent behind her action and that she had only been performing her “duty as a teacher”. She also reportedly claimed that she depended upon the students to punish the Muslim boy for not doing his homework as she herself is differently abled.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court reportedly pulled up the UP government for poor probe in the case.
Meanwhile, talking about the incident allegedly faced by his son, Nitin Tyagi said, “My son’s morale dipped to zero after this act by the teacher. The boy who remembered his lesson and was asked to hit [him] may have felt higher in morale, but my son felt demoralised completely and hence I went to the nearest police station and gave a written complaint”.
Claiming that his family would have had no problem if the teacher had punished his son for not knowing his lessons in some other way, Tyagi said, “My son has been going there [to St. Anthony’s] for five years.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)