New Delhi:

A case has been registered against the Uttar Pradesh school teacher who was seen asking students to slap their Muslim classmate in a viral video – which has triggered a massive outrage.

Tripta Tyagi – who is also the principal of the Neha Public School in Muzaffarnagar – was seen making communal remarks while asking students to slap the 7-year-old as he stood helplessly with tears streaming down his face.

Tripta Tyagi, however, says that she is not “ashamed” of her egregious act. “I am not ashamed. I have served the people of this village as a teacher. They all are with me,”Ms Tyagi told NDTV.

She sought to justify her action, saying that it’s important to “control” the kids at school.

“They have made laws, but we need to control the children in schools. This is how we tackle them,” Ms Tyagi said.

Ms Tyagi had earlier dismissed the row over the viral video as a “minor issue”. “This wasn’t my intention. I am accepting my mistake, but this was unnecessarily turned into a big issue”, she said.

A senior police officer claimed after a probe, they had established that the teacher had said, “the mothers of those Muslim children who do not pay attention to the studies of their wards, their academics get totally destroyed.”

Aravind Mallappa Bangari, District Magistrate, Muzaffarnagar said that a First Information Report or FIR has been registered against the teacher.

“We have done a full investigation. On the complaint of the child’s father, we have registered a case against the accused teacher, departmental action is also being taken against the teacher,” said Mr Bangari.

The boy was forced to stand for hours, humiliated and beaten, his father told the police.

“My son is seven. The teacher had my child beaten up repeatedly by students. My nephew made the video, he had gone to school for some work… My seven-year-old was tortured for an hour or two. He is scared. This is not a Hindu-Muslim issue. We want the law to take its own course,” said the boy’s father.

The child is in shock, he said.

The video has triggered a massive outrage on social media. Politicians across the party lines also condemned the incident as a hate crime, targeting the ruling BJP government in the state. 

UP’s Deputy Chief Minister Brijesh Pathak said: “We have taken cognizance and full action will be taken.”