A video of a man brutally caning and kicking a student in a classroom, while holding him by the hair, is going viral across social media platforms. The clip, which shows the boy kneeling and pleading to the teacher, is being shared with the claim that it shows a Christian teacher thrashing a Hindu boy for wearing a rudraksha (Hindu holy beads) around his neck in Tamil Nadu.
However, both the teacher, identified as Subramaniam, and the student, belong to the Hindu community, as confirmed by deputy superintendent's office in Tamil Nadu's Chidambaram. Also, the student was thrashed for reportedly skipping an earlier class.
Meanwhile, in an another incident that took place in a government-aided school in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, a Christian teacher allegedly made rude remarks and reportedly harassed a student wearing the holy beads and sandalwood on his forehead.
CLAIM
The video of the brutal caning is going viral across social media, where users are sharing it with the claim that a Christian teacher in Tamil Nadu beat up a boy for wearing the rudraksha in class, and later banished him from the school.
Suresh Chavhanke, editor of media organisation Sudarshan News, published the video on his Twitter account, where it was retweeted by nearly 3,800 users and was viewed over 3 lakh times at the time of writing this article.
The clip was also shared on Sudarshan News’ official Twitter account. Other posts on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim can be seen here, here and here.
Meanwhile, some users, including Varun Puri, a part of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations' (ICCR) member advisory committee, claimed that the incident took place in Kerala. Puri later took down his tweet.
WHAT WE FOUND
We looked up ‘teacher caning student’ on Google and the results led us to an article by India Today published on 14 October, which carried stills from the video.
The report noted that the video is from Nandanar Boys High School in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram and showed a Physics teacher identified as Subramaniam.
He had punished seven students who had not been regularly attending his classes. Forcing these students to kneel, he then caned and kicked them as punishment.
Meanwhile, a local reporter confirmed to The Quint's WebQoof team that Subramaniam belonged to the Hindu community.
A report by The Indian Express noted that these are Class 12 students and that the boy was pleading for the teacher to stop, promising that he would never repeat his mistake again.
According to The Hindu, the student seen in the viral video belonged to the Dalit community and sustained injuries on his thighs.
He was admitted to Rajah Muthiah Medical College and Hospital for his treatment.
The report further notes that Subramaniam was arrested by the police and was booked under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (SC/ST Act), while being charged with several other offences.
BOTH STUDENT AND TEACHER ARE HINDUS: POLICE
The deputy superintendent's office in Chidambaram also told The Quint's WebQoof team that both the student and the teacher are from the Hindu community.
They identified the student by name (which The Quint has withheld on account of him being a minor) and said that Subramaniam had previously warned the 17-year-old not to skip classes. When he skipped class again, Subramaniam took to beating the boy out of anger.
In a tweet, Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), noted that the organisation had taken cognisance of the incident.
SIMILAR INCIDENT TOOK PLACE IN TN, VIDEO UNRELATED
An article by The News Minute mentioned that there was another incident that reportedly took place in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. In this case, a teacher named Joyson in government-aided Anderson school had asked a boy to not wear rudrakshas and apply sandalwood on his forehead, as is common practice among Hindus in southern India.
As per TNM's report, a complaint had been filed by the student's parents against the teacher, launching an inquiry into the matter.
Evidently, a video of a teacher brutally caning a student for missing classes was shared with a false claim that it was done due to the boy wearing a holy chain and a false communal angle was added to the incident.
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