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Just a day after a teacher in Uttar Pradesh was seen making her students beat a fellow Muslim kid, two teachers in the Kathua district of Jammu were booked for allegedly administering corporal punishment to a student for writing “Jai Shri Ram” on the blackboard.
The incident was reported from the government higher secondary school in the Bani area of Kathua on Friday and a case was lodged on Saturday, police said. The accused teacher was identified as Farooq Ahmad. The principal of the school, identified as Mohammad Hafiz, has also been booked in the case.
While Ahmad has been arrested, the principal is absconding, police said. The duo face charges under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 75 (cruelty to child) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
According to reports, the victim, a student of 10th grade, comes from an underprivileged family and was admitted to the hospital by his father on Saturday morning.
The incident came to the fore just a day after a video emerged of a teacher at a school in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar making her students beat a fellow Muslim student.
“I have declared jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai...” the teacher was reportedly caught saying on camera while she called the rest of the class one after the other to take turns hitting the Muslim student.
After the Kathua incident, protests broke out in the Bani and Basohli areas of the district. Sensing the situation turning communal, Deputy Commissioner Kathua, Rakesh Minhas, constituted an inquiry committee headed by the Bani sub-divisional magistrate.
The committee, which has Deputy Chief Education Officer of Kathua and Principal of the government higher secondary school, Kharote, as its members, has been asked to submit a report within two days.