On Monday, an FIR was filed against Mohammad Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, for allegedly revealing the identity of the minor boy slapped by his classmates on a Islamophobic teacher’s instruction in Khubbapur village.
The Senior Superintendent of Police, Sanjeev Suman, mentioned that the case was registered under section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act (2015).
The complainant, Vishnu Dutt, accused Zubair of sharing a video of the incident on social media, thereby disclosing the boy’s identity. The incident, captured in a video, showed a Muslim student being slapped by classmates who were reportedly upset over incomplete homework. This led to widespread condemnation.
In a separate development, a case was registered against the teacher, Tripta Tyagi, on Saturday based on a complaint from the boy’s family. She was charged under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC. Tyagi defended herself, claiming that the video had been altered to create a communal divide and asserting that it was filmed by the student’s uncle.
Tyagi further explained that while it was wrong for her to instruct classmates to slap the student, her physical condition (being handicapped) prevented her from directly intervening to address the situation where the student hadn’t completed his assignment.
Meanwhile #StandWithZubair is trending on Twitter.
