The Allahabad High Court (HC) has denied anticipatory bail to a school teacher who asked Class II students to slap their Muslim classmate, an incident that triggered widespread outrage last year. This was informed by a lawyer on Thursday, December 5.
The bench, led by Justice Deepak Verma, rejected the teacher's plea for anticipatory bail and directed her to surrender before the relevant court within two weeks from the date of the order and apply for regular bail, reported PTI.
Kamran Zaidi, the lawyer representing the victim, said that the lower court had initially rejected the anticipatory bail application on October 16, and the high court upheld that decision on November 23.
The prosecution has filed charges against Tripti Tyagi under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace), and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings). In addition, charges under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act have also been invoked, the lawyer stated.
The case garnered significant attention after a video surfaced in August 2023 showing Tyagi instructing her Class II students to slap a Muslim classmate while making a communal remark in Khubbapur village. Following the incident, Muzaffarnagar police filed a case against Tyagi, and the state's education department issued a notice to the school.
The incident also drew criticism from the Supreme Court, which, on November 10, 2023, reprimanded the state government for failing to comply with its directive to appoint an agency to provide counselling for the victimised child.
The court emphasised that the subsequent developments highlighted the state's failure to take appropriate action after the offence occurred. On January 12, the apex court reiterated that the state's lack of timely intervention had exacerbated the situation.
Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan remarked that the state should have acted with greater concern following the incident, PTI added,
