New Delhi: Officials in Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh are probing reports that say that a private school principal assaulted a Muslim student, confined him to a room, and eventually expelled him for bringing non-vegetarian tiffin to school.
The Wire has learnt from Amroha police that the district inspector of schools at Amroha has formed a three-member team to probe the incident and a video of it which was widely shared on social media.
The video purportedly shows the principal, one Avneesh Sharma, telling a person who appears to be the student’s mother that he has already struck the student’s name off the rolls.
Although the audio is unclear, various accounts have quoted Sharma as having said, “We cannot teach children in our school who destroy our temples…”
The Hindu quoted the principal as also saying, “Your child says that he wants to convert everyone to Islam by making them eat non-vegetarian food.”
The mother in the video can be heard refuting the allegations and mentioning repeatedly that her child is just seven years old. Sharma says that she teaches him these things, and that he learns of this at home.
Times of India has reported that the child was in Class 3 and that he had brought biryani in his tiffin.
Sudhir Kumar, the sub-divisional magistrate of Amroha, has noted, according to the report, that the Basic Shiksha Adhikari and the district inspector of schools had been ordered to investigate the matter.
Rajya Sabha MP Syed Nasir Hussain has been among those who condemned the incident.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government for not counselling students in Muzaffarnagar who were allegedly instructed by their teacher to slap a Muslim boy for not doing his homework. In that viral video, the teacher could be heard saying “Mohammedans should be beaten up”.
The Hindu has also reported earlier on schools across New Delhi making “vegetarian” tiffin almost mandatory in a Hindutva-driven push.
