New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh School where a teacher, earlier this week, asked students to slap a fellow Muslim classmate has been ordered shut pending probe, said authorities. The education department has sent a notice to the school operator in this regard.
Meanwhile, the children studying in the school will be admitted in nearby schools by the officials of the Education Department so that their studies are not affected, the authorities added.
The accused teacher Tripta Tyagi, who also doubles up as Principal of the Neha Public School in Muzaffarnagar, was seen on video asking students to slap the 7-year-old Muslim boy. As the student stood crying, his classmates took turns to slap him, showed the video. The teacher was also heard in the video asking the students to hit him hard.
The teacher, however, has justified her action, saying it was a "minor issue". A case has been registered against her.
Denying any communal angle in the incident, Tripta Tyagi said she asked some students to slap the boy because he had not been doing his homework.
"There was pressure from the child's parents to be strict with him. I am handicapped, so I made some students slap him so that he would start doing his homework," she had said defending herself.
The child and his parents were counselled by the child welfare committee. "My son is 7-year-old. This incident happened on August 24. The teacher made the students beat my child again and again. My son was tortured for an hour or two. He is scared," the child's father had said after the incident.
The video has triggered a massive outrage on social media. Politicians across the party lines also condemned the incident as a hate crime.
The boy's father had said that he will not press charges against the school, but has decided not to send his child to this school anymore.