FIR against Mohd Zubair for video of UP student slapped on teacher’s orders

Muzaffarnagar (City) superintendent of police (SP) Saryanarayan Prajapat said Mohd Zubair has been accused of revealing the identity of the victim boy

MEERUT: A first information report (FIR) has been filed by the Uttar Pradesh police against Alt News co-founder Mohd Zubair, who was among the first last week to post on social media the video of a private schoolteacher making communal comments and encouraging her students to slap their Muslim classmate, the Muzaffarnagar police said on Monday.

(Screengrab/Video)

“He has been accused of revealing the identity of the victim boy,” said Muzaffarnagar (City) superintendent of police (SP) Saryanarayan Prajapat. The FIR was filed by the Mansoorpur police station under section 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 on a complaint by Vishnu Dutt, a resident of the village where the school is located.

On Friday, Zubar posted a video of the incident on X, formerly known as Twitter, leading to nationwide outrage. Zubair removed the video minutes later, citing a call by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to remove the videos from X.

The SP said an investigation is underway to verify the charges against Zubair.

Section 74 of the JJ Act bars any report in any newspaper, magazine, audio-visual media or other forms of communication “regarding any inquiry or investigation or judicial procedure”, from disclosing “the name, address or school or any other particular, which may lead to the identification of a child in conflict with law or a child in need of care and protection or a child victim or witness of a crime, involved in such matter, under any other law for the time being in force, nor shall the picture of any such child be published: Provided that for reasons to be recorded in writing, the Board or Committee, as the case may be, holding the inquiry may permit such disclosure, if in its opinion such disclosure is in the best interest of the child.”

Upon conviction, the law prescribes a jail term which can extend to six months or a fine which mav extend to two lakh rupees or both.

To be sure, the FIR against the school teacher was registered on Saturday under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult) of the Indian Penal Code. In the 34-second clip, the teacher can be seen sitting on her chair while asking her students to slap the Class 2 boy. She is also heard saying that children of a certain faith whose parents do not pay attention to their education should be taught a lesson.