A case was registered against Zubair under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, which prohibits disclosure of the identity of children.
Published Aug 28, 2023 | 6:49 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 28, 2023 | 6:49 PM
Zubair said he has not yet received any calls or emails from the Uttar Pradesh police. (zoo_bear/Twitter)
Responding to the Uttar Pradesh police registering a case against him, fact-checking portal Alt News’ co-founder Mohammad Zubair said he has been “singled out”.
The Mansoorpur police registered the case against Zubair on Monday, 28 August, for allegedly revealing the identity of a minor boy, who was slapped by his classmates reportedly on the orders of their teacher at Khubbapur village in the Muzaffarnagar district.
The case was registered based on a complaint by one Vishnu Dutt, who accused Zubair of revealing the boy’s identity by sharing a video of the incident on X, previously known as Twitter.
The said video has been going viral on social media since Friday, 25 August. The video showed the teacher, Tripta Tyagi, prodding the Class II students of Neha Public School to slap their classmate, a Muslim boy, hard.
The boy was seen receiving the slaps, tears rolling down his cheeks, even as Tyagi reportedly made disparaging comments against his community. Several television news channels, too, aired the video.
Zubair said that he deleted the video from X soon after Priyank Kanoongo, the chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), had asked people to remove it from their social media handles.
“I find it concerning that I have been singled out. Several other individuals, news channel anchors, and media outlets played the video on social media and their channels both before and after I had deleted the tweet,” Zubair told South First.
“Despite several people sharing the video, only my name is mentioned in the FIR. I believe that this may be a case of vendetta politics with an intent to target and silence me,” he said.
Zubair shared the video at 6.39 pm on Friday and, around 8 pm, he announced on X that he had deleted the video “because NCPCR wanted the people to the delete the video”.
Deleted the video because @NCPCR_ wanted people to the delete the video. https://t.co/hZh7gajJQI pic.twitter.com/kt2yMt8GGC
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 25, 2023
Kanoongo had asked the people to delete the video at 7:05 pm.
“In Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, the incident of a teacher getting a child beaten up by other children in the class has been reported. Taking cognizance, instructions are being issued for action, everyone is requested not to share the video of the child, give information about such incidents by email, not become a part of the crime by revealing the identity of the children,” he posted on the social media platform.
उत्तरप्रदेश के मुज़फ़्फ़रनगर में एक शिक्षिका द्वारा कक्षा में बच्चे को अन्य बच्चों से पिटवाये जाने की घटना की जानकारी मिली है।
संज्ञान ले कर कार्यवाही हेतु निर्देश जारी किए जा रहे हैं,सभी से निवेदन है कि बच्चे का वीडियो शेयर न करें इस तरह की घटना की जानकारी ईमेल द्वारा दें,बच्चों…— प्रियंक कानूनगो Priyank Kanoongo (मोदी का परिवार) (@KanoongoPriyank) August 25, 2023
“I am in contact with my lawyer, awaiting legal opinion. We are planning to have a discussion today, and will explore our options,” Zubair said.
He added that he had not received any calls or emails from the UP police. “A journalist friend shared the news that an FIR has been filed against me,” he said.
Senior Superintendent of Police of Mansoorpur Sanjiv Suman did not respond to South First‘s call. However, the police PRO shared the FIR copy. When contacted the complainant’s number provided in the FIR, he was unreachable.
Incidentally, the number was found registered under the name, Vishnu Tyagi, though the FIR mentioned the complainant as Vishnu Dutt.
The complainant said that, to his knowledge, a video had gone viral in the Neha Public School case.
“It has come to light that the identity of the child victim has been exposed in the video by Mohammad Zubair, a journalist of Alt News, which is a violation of the rights of the child under the Juvenile Justice Act. So it is requested that appropriate legal action be taken,” the complaint read.
Meanwhile, the teacher in question, Tripta Tyagi, has been charged with non-cognizable offences under the Indian Penal Code.
A case was registered against the teacher on Saturday under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the IPC, based on a complaint by the boy’s family.
In defence, Tyagi claimed that the video had been manipulated to give a communal connotation to the incident. She asserted that the video was recorded by the student’s uncle.
The teacher acknowledged that it was inappropriate for her to have the student slapped by his classmates. However, she stated that she was compelled to do so since she was physically handicapped.
