FIR registered against Muslim journalist for sharing video of Muslim boy slapped in class

Maulana Mahmood Asad Madani, president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, visited Khabbapur village to meet the family of the Muslim boy who was slapped by his Hindu classmates on the teacher’s directions. A video of the incident went viral on social media, causing outrage on a wide scale.

“Today, the environment of the country has become so polluted that now security institutions and even schools, which are called the temples of knowledge, are falling prey to it,” said Maulana Mahmood.

He wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, urging for strict action against the accused teacher.

Likewise, he has also written to the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), National Human Rights Commission, National Minorities Commission.

In his letter, he stated, “You should instruct the concerned district administration to not try to cover up this serious matter by imposing minor clauses of the law.”

According to Geo news, Jamiat Ulema Hind has undertaken to sponsor the education of the Muslim child Muhammad Al-Tamish and the child has been admitted to an English medium school.

The organization has also made arrangements for the child’s travel facility and has also undertaken to bear the cost of the child’s education.

Update on the case:

Uttar Pradesh Minority Commission has taken suo motu of the incident and has asked the District Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar and the Senior Superintendent of Police to send an eight-point report on the incident.

The commission has directed Muzaffarnagar BSA and teacher Tripta Tyagi to appear in Lucknow on September 6.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been registered against journalist Mohammad Zubair for sharing the video of the incident on social media.

Zubair told The Wire that an FIR had been lodged against him even though he had later deleted the video and notified his followers on social media site X (formerly Twitter).

According to The Wire, Zubair has been on the radar of right-wing forces including BJP-ruled state governments. He has been charged under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which is punishable by imprisonment up to six months.

School shut down

Neha Public School, where a teacher made students slap their Muslim class-fellow, has been shut down. According to Indian officials, the school “did not meet the education department’s criteria.”

Former students are to be shifted to other schools or a government school.

Teacher in denial

Tripta Tyagi, the Indian teacher who was seen in a viral video asking her students to hit a “Mohammaden” student has denied making Islamophobic remarks against her Muslim student, stating that “it wasn’t my intention.”

She also justified urging the students to beat their classmate by claiming that she is handicapped and could not get up herself so, in order to discipline the student, she asked other kids to take the lead.

“I made a mistake by getting the child beaten up by the students. I am handicapped and could not get up, so I asked the students to beat the child. The video has been tampered with,” she alleged.

Tyagi said that she used the word Mohammaden in a sentence where she said that Muslim mother’s should not take their children to their relatives’ houses as they must study.

She also believes that in order to maintain discipline in the class, one has to take strict measures.

So she’s denying Islamophobia and playing the victim card. The Islamophobia aside, she should know hitting children is illegal, whether or not she’s handicapped. At the very least her school needs to be shut down. #ArrestTriptaTayagi https://t.co/1vVkX4WwGx

— Shivam Vij (@DilliDurAst) August 26, 2023

The video

On Friday, a video circulated across social media in which a  school teacher, Trapta Tyagi, in Uttar Pradesh, India, is asking her students to slap a seven-year-old Muslim class fellow.

Apart from making Islamophobic remarks, she  can be heard prompting the students to hit the boy, Mohammad Altamash, harder: “I have declared that all Muslim children should go,” Tyagi says while a male voice behind the camera can be heard agreeing with the teacher, “You are correct, it ruins the education,”.

The student stands still, crying and scared, while the students, one by one, come forward to slap their classmate.

According to Al-Jazeera, Muslims constitute approximately a fifth of the 235 million population of Uttar Pradesh.

Al-Jazeera also spoke with Altamash’s parents, who said that the incident took place on Thursday in Neha Public School in Kubbapur village.

“Yesterday, my son came home crying,” Rubina, his mother, said. “He was traumatised. This is not how you treat kids.”

The father, Mohammad Irshad, is a farmer. He said that the teacher justified her actions by saying the boy did not memorise his lessons.
“My son is good at his studies. He takes tuitions. We fail to understand why the teacher treated him like this. It seems that the teacher is filled with hate,”

According to Al-Jazeera, Indian police have asked social media users not to share the video, persuading many users to remove it.
Irshad believes that the mistreatment of his son was the result of “hate that is being spread against Muslims in the country”.
Rubina also stated that the teacher reportedly would get her students slapped by their classmates and only a few days ago, another student from their family was put through a similar treatment after he failed to memorise his lessons.

In a video shared by an X (formerly Twitter) user, Irshad states, “I didn’t want to file a police complaint because I don’t want to be called by Police or by court every now and then,” 

However, according to a  police officer, as reported by Al-Jazeera, a case will be filed after recording the statement of the child and the parents.

The school in question has students from the Hindu and Muslim communities in the area. And while the teacher has acknowledged her mistake and apologized for her misconduct, Irshad has firmly decided to admit his son to another school.

“She said she will never treat her students badly again,” he said. “But this is not the environment where I want my son to get an education and grow up in.”

People react

The little Muslim boy who was slapped by his classmates on the instructions of his teacher would never forget the humiliation that he faced. He may get an outpouring of support, he would probably go to a better school, well meaning people will give him laptops and books but no…

— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) August 25, 2023

Have just seen a terribly distressing video of a teacher in Muzaffarnagar in UP encouraging students to slap a Muslim kid in class because of their religion. Nothing more horrific than this. The teacher should not just be sacked but arrested. All those who spread hate on social…

— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) August 25, 2023

That video . To see a child being evidently targeted for violence for his religion . That video is the most depressing and disgusting thing I’ve seen today.

— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) August 25, 2023