UP school where Muslim student was slapped by classmates on teacher's order closed for third day

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Neha Public School in Khabbupur village here where a Muslim student was slapped by his classmates on the instructions of the teacher remained closed for the third day on Monday. The school management said it was not opening the institute as it was busy replying to the show cause notice served to it by the education department over the school's affiliation. It also said a large number of people were continuously visiting the school.

Uttar Pradesh government's Basic Shiksha Adhikari Shubham Shukla told PTI that the school was served a show cause notice on Saturday and it has been asked to submit its reply on Monday on the issue of its affiliation. The school was given government affiliation for a period of three years in 2019 which expired last year, but the management did not try for its renewal, he said. The BSA has already said the said school will not be closed and normal teaching activities will continue there in the interests of students till an alternate arrangement is made for them.

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On Friday, a video of school teacher Tripta Tyagi had gone viral in which she asked students of Class II to slap their Muslim classmate for allegedly not doing his homework, triggering widespread condemnation. A case against was registered against Tyagi on Saturday under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code on the complaint of the victim's family. Tyagi, in her defence, had said the video had been tampered with to give a communal colour to the matter and claimed that it was shot by the student's uncle. She had, however, admitted getting the student slapped by his classmates was wrong, but said it was because she was physically challenged and was not able to stand up and reach the student.