A video of some students in Meerut harassing their teacher and making offensive comments while she is walking away is going viral on the internet.
Who shared it?: Social media users have shared this video with a claim that the teacher, who belonged to the Muslim community, was harassed by her Hindu students.
The clip has also been shared (archive here) by the former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, Zafarul Islam Khan, to insinuate that the incident had a communal angle.
(An archive of a similar claim can be found here.)
The truth: We reached out to the police and the school principal for their comments to verify the veracity of the claim and found that the incident had no such communal angle.
Shuchita Singh, Circle Officer, Kithore, said that the complainant and all the accused are from the same community.
The school's principal, Ombir Singh, too, refuted any communal angle to the incident.
How did we find out?: Hindi Quint had reported on the incident and published a report on 27 November.
It mentioned that in Meerut, three students misbehaved with their teacher and made comments like "I love you".
After the video of the incident went viral, the teacher decided to file a police complaint against the four students.
The report further said that the teacher had previously tried to make these students understand that their behaviour was socially and legally wrong.
Similar reports were also published by NDTV and India Today.
The complaint: We accessed a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the teacher on 25 November in the Kithore police station of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
In her complaint, the teacher said that some class 12 students were harassing and trolling her by making obscene comments. We have refrained from naming the students as they are minors.
The teacher said she ignored their behaviour as she thought of them as her students. However, they continued making such comments even on her way home.
On 24 November, she got to know that her students had recorded the entire incident without her consent, which went viral on the internet.
The teacher further said she is going into depression and does not have the strength to face her students.
What did the police say?: Meerut Police posted a tweet on 27 November on their official handle and said that all the accused had been detained.
Further, Shuchita Singh, Circle Officer, Kithore, told The Quint that the victim and all the accused are from the same community.
"We lodged a complaint against these students under Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 500 (Punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code, and under Section 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act."Shuchita Singh, Circle Officer, Kithore
What did the institute say?: Principal, Ombir Singh, told The Quint, "The action has been taken against these students and they have been arrested. There is no communal angle to the incident as all of them belonged to the same community. The college has also expelled them."
Conclusion: Evidently, a video of some students harassing their teacher in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, is being shared with a false communal spin.
(Note: We have refrained from naming the institute or the teacher to protect her identity.)
(With inputs from Piyush Rai.)
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