A school teacher from the Sambhal District in Uttar Pradesh was arrested on Thursday, September 28, after she allegedly ordered a Muslim student to slap a Hindu classmate, for not answering a question she asked. The police arrested the teacher for inciting communal hatred among the students.

IANS reports that this incident happened at a private school located in Dugawar village on Tuesday, September 26. The school falls under the Asmoli police station limits of the district.

The teacher, Shaista, was booked under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc.) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after the Hindu boy’s father filed a complaint against her.

Additional Superintendent of Police Shrish Chandra disclosed that the accused teacher has been arrested.

According to the father of the Hindu boy, who is a student of Class V in the school, his class teacher got the boy slapped by a Muslim student after he could not answer a question asked by her.

The father said that this hurt his son's religious feelings, in the complaint. An investigation is being conducted by the police in the matter, Additional SP Chandra said.

Last month, in a similar incident in the Khubbapur village, Muzaffarnagar, a private school teacher had a Muslim child slapped in a class by his classmates for not finishing his homework. A case was registered against the accused teacher, Tripta Tyagi, under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).

On September 25, the Supreme Court said that there could not be quality education in the nation if students were penalised on the grounds of belonging to a particular community while pulling up the Uttar Pradesh government for a shoddy investigation in the Muzaffarnagar case. The apex court directed the state government to appoint a senior IPS officer within a week to probe the incident.