'I made a mistake but...': Muzaffarnagar teacher refutes 'communal angle' amid UP school slapping row

livemint.com:

Uttar Pradesh school teacher Tripta Tyagi insisted on Monday that there was no ‘communal angle’ to her actions amid furore over a recent student-slapping incident. A video of the teacher urging fellow students to slap the Class 2 boy had gone viral on Friday.

The Muslim child was allegedly being punished for not doing his homework - with Tyagi asserting that the video had been shot by the student's uncle and did not reveal the incident in its entirety. “I made a mistake, but there was no Hindu-Muslim motive.

The children had not done their homework and my intention was to ensure that they memorise (the lessons). I could not get up, so I asked some children to slap him a couple of times so that he starts studying," she said in a video message.

Tyagi explained that she had been forced to ask the other students as she was handicapped and therefore not able to stand up and reach the student who had not done his assignment. A case was registered against Tyagi on Saturday under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC on the complaint by the boy's family.