Fact Check: Video of a teacher thrashing a student shared with a communal twist
A video is being widely shared on social media where a man is seen hitting a student with a stick in front of the entire class and is also pulling the student's hair.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 19 Oct 2021 9:06 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video is being widely shared on social media where a man is seen hitting a student with a stick in front of the entire class and is also pulling the student's hair.
The video went viral after Suresh Chavhanke, editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, shared the video stating that the headmaster is a Christian and is hitting the student as the latter was wearing a prayer bead.
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Fact Check
The claim made through the viral post is misleading.
NewsMeter performed a Google Reverse Image Search of a screenshot from the viral post which led us to a report by The Hindu published on October 5, 2021 titled "Teacher held for kicking Dalit boy in classroom".
According to the report, "The Chidambaram town police arrested a teacher of the Nandanar Government Boys Higher Secondary School for flogging and kicking a class 12th student belonging to the Dalit community. According to police, the school headmaster Guganathan was doing the rounds on Wednesday when he found a student not attending classes. He took the 17-year-old student to the classroom and complained to the physics teacher Subramanian. The teacher enquired with the student and allegedly caned him. As the teacher got hold of the student's hair and started flogging and kicking him, a few students took out their mobile phones and shot videos of the incident."
A similar report was also published by Bharat Times, Indien News and Justice News.
The fact check team then found a report by The News Minute that reported about police officials debunking the viral post.
According to the report, the deputy superintendent of police in Chidambaram said, "The teacher beat up the student for not coming to his classes. After the video emerged of the incident, the teacher was arrested and has been remanded. He was booked under sections of SC/ST Act and relevant sections of the IPC. There is no communal angle in this."
The report further stated that after the video went viral on social media, the headmaster stated that the student was beaten up for not attending his class.
"The eight students came to school on Wednesday and attended the first hour. But as it was physics class in the second hour and because Subramanian, the teacher, conducts daily class tests, these eight students decided to skip the class," the headmaster told The News Minute.
It is therefore evident that the claim made through the viral post is misleading as the video of the teacher thrashing a student for skipping his class is being shared with a communal angle.
