Tripta Tyagi alleged that the video was edited to give the whole episode a communal angle. "The child's cousin was sitting in the class. The video was recorded by him which was later distorted," she said.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — The Uttar Pradesh teacher who was seen asking students to slap their Muslim classmate in a viral video has justified her action, saying it was a “minor issue.”
A case has been registered against the teacher from a school of village Khubbapur in Muzaffarnagar.
Denying that her action was communal in nature, Tripta Tyagi said she asked some students to slap him because the boy 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 was quoted by NDTV as saying.
She alleged the video was edited to give the whole episode a communal angle. “The child’s cousin was sitting in the class. The video was recorded by him which was later distorted,” she said, referring to offensive words she was heard using against a community in the video.
Ms. Tyagi said it was a “minor issue” that had been blown out of proportion after the video clip went viral. “This wasn’t my intention. I am accepting my mistake, but this was unnecessarily turned into a big issue”, the report cited her as saying.
“I want to tell politicians that this was a minor issue. Leaders, including Rahul Gandhi have tweeted, but it was not such a big thing to tweet about. How will teachers teach if daily issues like these are made viral,” she said.
Aravind Mallappa Bangari, District Magistrate, Muzaffarnagar said that a First Information Report or FIR has been registered against the teacher.
“The parents initially did not agree to lodge a complaint but this morning (Saturday) they gave a complaint to the local police station, and it has been registered. Legal action will be taken in the case,” Bangari said.
He said the child and his parents were counselled by the child welfare committee.
“My son is 7 years 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 said.
Earlier, the boy’s father had said he won’t press charges against the school.
