In the Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, a case was filed on Saturday after a teacher who beat a student at a government higher secondary school. The student said he was attacked because he had written “Jai Shri Ram” on the classroom’s blackboard when he was taken to the hospital.
The principal of the school and the accused teacher were both named in a FIR filed by the police.
The teacher and the principal are accused of violating Sections 323 of the Indian Penal Code (voluntarily causing harm), Sections 342 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act (wrongful imprisonment), Sections 504 of the Indian Penal Code (intentional insult), and Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (criminal intimidation).
This comes 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 caught saying on camera while she called the rest of the class one after the other to take turns hitting the Muslim student.
Following the event in Kathua, the Deputy Commissioner announced the formation of a three-person team to conduct an investigation. The Sub Divisional Magistrate of Bani, the Deputy Chief Education Officer of Kathua, and the headmaster of the public higher secondary school in Kharote make up the members.
