Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair.
Credit: PTI Photo
Uttar Pradesh police have registered a case against fact-checker and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair for allegedly revealing the identity of the Muslim boy slapped by his classmates on the instruction of their teacher. The incident caught on camera revealed that the teacher was egging on the other students to hit the child in question, and was also making communal remarks.
According to the sources, a case against Zubair was registered at Mansoorpur police station after he allegedly revealed the identity of the eight-year-old boy in his posts on social media.
Sources said that a case under section 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2015 was registered against Zubair. A social media user had complained that Zubair had posted videos of the incident that revealed the identity of the minor Muslim boy.
"The matter is being investigated," said a senior police official in Muzaffarnagar.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had earlier warned against revealing the identity of the child by sharing the video of the incident on social media.
Meanwhile, a team of the district education department has initiated an inquiry into the incident and visited the school at Khubbapur village in the district on Monday.
The father of the Muslim child said that his son would not study at the school any more and that he would get him admitted to a different school.
The teacher, identified as Tripta Tyagi, was filmed by a relative of the boy who was also in the classroom when she asked the other students to slap the victim. The video triggered a massive nationwide outrage, with opposition leaders targeting the BJP government over the incident even as an FIR was lodged against the lady teacher.
The video purportedly showed the students taking turns to slap their Muslim classmate as the teacher watched. The teacher is also heard making communal remarks and egging on the students to hit the student in question harder.
The lady teacher later claimed that the parents of the Muslim students had asked her to be 'strict' with their wards if they did not do their homework on time and focus on their studies.