The Muzaffarnagar police on Monday filed an FIR against the fact checker and co-founder of Alt News Mohammad Zubair on the accusation of revealing the identity of a minor in the case of the seven year old Muslim boy being beaten by his peers on the command of school teacher, Tripta Tyagi as seen in the video that surfaced online.
Zubair has been booked under section 74 of Juvenile Justice Act; the FIR has been lodged by a person name Vishnudutt. Section 74 of the Act talks about the offense committed by any person of disclosing the identity of children.
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The provision of Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 prohibits disclosure of identity of children, which is also applicable in case of disclosure of identity of a deceased minor. People found guilty of such a crime could be subjected to a six months of incarceration or fine up to Rs. 2lakhs.
What was the video about?
On 25th Aug, a video of a seven-year-old Muslim boy slapped by his fellow classmates on the instruction of their school teacher went viral on all social media platforms. Tripta Tyagi, the school teacher was heard making provocative statements of the kid’s faith and talked about how these “Mohammedan children” should be treated.
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The incident took place in Neha Public School in Muzaffarnagar.
In the video, Tyagi is heard to be saying “Maine toh declare kardiya hai, Jitne bhi Mohammedan bache hai unke yaha chale jao……(I have declared that all these Muslim kids, go to their area)”
She was even heard asking the other kids to come and slap the seven-year-old Muslim boy. She reiterated how he should be slapped harder with each beating he gets from other kids.
After the widespread agitation on the internet against the teacher, pressure mounted on the police authorities to take action. The police filed an FIR against the Tyagi on the basis of the video, statement by the boy and his father’s complaint. Section 323 and 504 of India Penal Code was put on her.
Nevertheless, the charges against her have been filed as non-cognisable, indicating that her arrest by the police necessitates a warrant. Furthermore, initiating an investigation requires the police to obtain court approval.
What followed later?
After much fuss was created around the video and people on social media were demanding the arrest of Tyagi, NCPCR jumped in seeking action and also issued a tweet asking people to take down the videos they have posted and further refrain from making the video viral.
#ArrestTriptaTyagi was trending on X within hours of video went viral.
The very next day a video started to surface on the internet where Tyagi was seen apologizing for the kind of behavior that was meted out to the kid but in the same video she was seen defending her actions saying that since she is in wheel chair and cannot walk, she asked other students to punish him on her behalf.
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She further claimed that the video has been edited in such a way that it looks offensive and portrays otherwise against the community.
On Saturday, the father and the seven-year-old kid found himself surrounded and crowded with politicians, media people, neighbors and activists. Political party RLD and people from Bhim Army showed up in support of the family. However, some head of the villagers wanted the father to make a settlement and not make an issue out of it.
While the father initially never wanted to file an FIR in the light of preventing any further discomfort or rage from the villagers, however, he eventually decided to go for it.
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“Tweet withheld in response to legal demand” and FIR against Zubair
Several handles ranging from Journalists, politicians, activists to general public on Saturday complained of their tweets being withheld which were based on the Muzaffarnagar slapping case.
People took screenshot of the notification they received and criticized how their tweets are longer visible on the micro-blogging site.
“Your tweet has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand”, the notification read.
Supriya Shrinate, a spokesperson for the Congress party, asserted that on Friday, the central government took swift action by issuing urgent directives to X (formerly Twitter), requesting the removal of the video depicting the child being slapped. According to her, on Saturday morning, further instructions were issued by the government to Twitter, this time aimed at blocking various links and hash tags associated with the case.
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However, no government authority has commented on it.
After the taking down of tweets, now the police has filed and FIR against Zubair alleging him of disclosing the identity of the minor in the video.
Zubair has said that he is being targeted for doing his job. While he wasn’t the first one to put out the video, it is to be seen if others who posted the same video will face any brunt from the police.
