The school teacher at a private school in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, who instructed students in her classroom to slap an eight-year-old Muslim boy, has called the incident a “conspiracy” and alleged she was being “tortured”.
Tripta Tyagi, who was seen in a purported video asking students in the classroom to slap the Class 2 student allegedly because he got the multiplication tables wrong, has said that the now-viral video has been “tampered with” in order to stoke tensions. The incident took place at the Neha Public School, which she owns, in Khubbapur village in Uttar Pradesh.
She, however, said though it was wrong on her part to get a student slapped by classmates, she was forced to do it as she is handicapped and was not able to stand up and reach the student who had not done his assignment.
“Ask the Muslim families in our village whether I regularly torture kids like this. Then it will become clear,” Tripta Tyagi said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
She added, “I was told to discipline the kid. So, while I was teaching the class, I asked him whether he had learnt what he was asked to. I had warned him earlier that I’d beat him if he didn’t.”
Tyagi further claimed, “I am being tortured. I don’t wish to live anymore. This is the extent to which my mental state has been hurt.”
Meanwhile, as the video sparked massive uproar on social media, Muzaffarnagar Police on Saturday booked Tyagi. Police booked Tyagi at the complaint of the boy’s family, under IPC sections 323 and 504 — both non-cognizable offences. Such offences are bailable and do not lead to immediate arrest, and require a warrant, reports PTI. The school was also served a notice by the state education department in connection with the matter.
The video has sparked a massive row, with Opposition parties hitting out at the BJP for “politics of hate”.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had on Friday in a post on X condemned the incident saying, “Sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children, turning a holy place like school into a marketplace of hatred — nothing worse a teacher can do for the country. This is the same kerosene spread by the BJP which has set every corner of India on fire. Children are the future of India – we all have to teach them love not hatred.”
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav too in a post demanded the teacher be sacked immediately, and called her a “blot on teacher society.”
The BJP shot back saying that Yadav was indulging in “superficial politics”.
BJP spokesperson Harishchandra Srivastava wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “The tweet made by Akhilesh Yadav regarding the Muzaffarnagar school incident is superficial politics and a disgusting political agenda to create disharmony in the society. We all in our student life have been punished by the teacher in school for not remembering tables, not correcting maths questions or not having good writing, and this is a natural process of improving discipline and talent in students,” he said.
Rashtriya Lok Dal president Jayant Chaudhary spoke to Irshad, the father of the victim, and assured him of justice.
NCPCR directs SSP to initiate inquiry
Further, taking suo motu cognisance, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has directed the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Muzaffarnagar to initiate an inquiry and lodge an FIR against Tyagi, reports The Indian Express.
The SSP has also been instructed to submit an action taken report within a week.
The NCPCR has further directed the Muzaffarnagar District Magistrate (DM) to initiate action in the matter under Section 17 (child being subjected to physical punishment/mental harassment) of the RTE Act, 2009.