By Nivedita Niranjankumar
In a disturbing viral video, a teacher of a private school in Uttar Pradesh is seen encouraging students to slap and beat their classmate, a 7-year-old boy. While the reason for her act is unclear, the teacher can be heard making Islamophobic comments in the video as she asks his classmates to come and slap him one by one; further admonishing some of them for not slapping him harder.
As the video went viral, netizens identified the video being shot at Neha Public School, in Khubbabpur village of Mansoorpur, Muzzafarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh. The teacher has been identified as a Tripta Tyagi.
BOOM spoke to the father of the young child, who confirmed the incident and said it happened on Thursday at Neha Public School. Speaking to BOOM, the father said, "The teacher has apologised and I have also removed my child from the school."
In the video, the teacher identified as a Tripta Tyagi is heard saying, "Maine declare kar diya hai...jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai..." even as one student can be seen slapping his classmate who is standing facing the class. Mohammedan is a colloquial term used in parts of India to refer to Muslims.
NOTE - BOOM HAS NOT INCLUDED THE VIDEO IN THE STORY, GIVEN ITS DISTURBING NATURE
The teacher is also seen calling on the other students one by one to slap the minor and also scolding them for not slapping him hard. She says, "Aye kya tum maar rahe ho isko...zor se maaro naa...chalo aur kiska number hai" (How are you slapping him...what are you doing? Why are you not hitting him harder) and then proceeds to call more students. One of them slaps the minor and the other hits him on the back.
The video is shot by a man whose face is not on camera but can be heard agreeing with the teacher and laughing even as the minor is seen crying after the repeated beating.
The father of the minor boy told BOOM that he came to know about the incident from the video. "My son did not tell me anything about being beaten like that. I don't know who shot the video or how it reached the internet. When the police called me, I visited the station with my son and the teacher was there. She apologised to me and my son and pleaded that a case not be registered against her. I did not pursue the case further. But I don't want my son to face such a thing again so I have removed him from Neha Public School," he said.
He added that the teacher did not clearly say why she made the children beat his son, "teacher ne kaha ki woh padhai karke nai aaya tha...(the teacher said that he had not come prepared for his lessons). When asked about allegation that the teacher called for violence against his son because he is a Muslim, Tyagi said, "I don't know. I can hear something in the video but the exact sentence is not clear. The teacher did not tell us what she said when we met her at the police station and my son does not remember".
BOOM also reached out to Ravi Shanker, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarnagar who confirmed the incident and said, "We are running two investigations - one whether the school is legal in nature and second about the act itself of the teacher asking other students to beat up the child." Shanker said the accused is a Tripta Tyagi who owns and runs the Neha Public School out of her house in Khubbabpur, Mansoorpur.
Shanker further said that the teacher has denied that she discriminated against the student because he was a Muslim. "The full sentence is not clear in the video. But the teacher told us that the full sentence is "Maine declare kar diya hai, jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai jinki Maaein chali gayi hai unka naash hogaya hai" (I have declared that all the Mohammedan children whose mothers have left or are not present, their lives have been ruined)." The police officer also said that they are investigating but the incident does not seem communal in nature.
He said the video was shot by someone who was visiting Tripta Tyagi and that person is not a teacher. When asked whether a suo moto case will be registered against Tripta Tyagi, Shanker said, "We are aware of a video of the father of the minor where he is saying he did not register a case. We are speaking to him to find out whether he did not pursue a case due to pressure from someone." The DySP added, "If the father does not voluntarily register a case, we will take it forward and register a suo moto case after investigation against the teacher Trupta Tyagi."
