Teacher trashes student for 'loitering', Sudarshan News injects false communal spin - Alt News
Kinjal
21st October 2021 / 2:12 pm
Sudarshan News tweeted a video on October 16 that shows a teacher beating a pupil in class. The channel claimed that a Christian teacher in Tamil Nadu brutally beat up a Hindu student for wearing a rudraksha (prayer beads used by Hindus, especially devotees of Shiva). The post amassed over 3,500 retweets as of this writing. (Archive link)
तमिलनाडु के सरकारी स्कूल में इस हिंदू छात्र को इसलिए पीटा जा रहा है क्योंकि वह रुद्राक्ष पहने हुए था..!!
ईसाई शिक्षक ने छात्र की क्रूरता से पिटाई की तथा स्कूल से भी भगा दिया..!!@mkstalin यही है आपकी सरकार का सेक्यूलरिज्म ?@BJP4TamilNadu @annamalai_k @Narayanan3 pic.twitter.com/KsZTq6Skto
— Sudarshan News (@SudarshanNewsTV) October 16, 2021
Suresh Chavhanke, editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, also tweeted the visuals with the same claim, which garnered more than 3,700 retweets. (Archive link)
This Hindu student is being beaten up in a government school in Tamil Nadu because he was wearing “Rudraksha”..!!
Christian teacher brutally beat up the student and also banished him from school..!!@mkstalin @PTI_News @BJP4TamilNadu @CMOTamilnadu pic.twitter.com/ao0nabdQTb
— Suresh Chavhanke “Sudarshan News” (@SureshChavhanke) October 17, 2021
The video is widespread on Facebook and Twitter.
Sudarshan News has shared the video with distorted context. The incident occurred in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram village where a Dalit student of Nandanar Government Boys Higher Secondary School was beaten up by a teacher. The matter came to light after the other students in the classroom took a recording on their mobile phones and shared it online.
An October 15 report by The Hindu quoted a police official as saying that the headmaster was taking rounds of the school when he noticed the student in question was not attending class. He took the boy to the classroom and complained to his physics teacher Subramanian, who thrashed the 17-year-old boy as a punishment. The teen sustained injuries on his thigh as a result of the beating and had to be admitted to the hospital. The police arrested the teacher after the student filed a complaint. He was booked under relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act and the SC/ST Act.
News agency ANI along with The Free Press Journal also identified the teacher who beat up the student as Subramanian.
The Hindu Tamil reported on October 16 that a teacher in Kancheepuram allegedly disallowed a student to enter the classroom as he was wearing a rudraksha. The report also mentioned that the teacher allegedly hit the student on the head. According to ABP Tamil, teachers from the school stated that students were prohibited from wearing neck jewellery or earrings. The principal of the school said that a proper investigation will be carried out in the matter. In the complaint filed with the police, the parents of the student said that both their sons attend Anderson High School in Kanchipuram and one of them was not allowed to enter the classroom as he was wearing a rudraksha. The letter also claimed that the student was beaten by the teacher, Joyson. AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathya tweeted a picture of the complaint letter.
வன்மையாக கண்டிக்கிறேன்.
சமூகநீதி, சமத்துவம் விடியல் எனும் பெயரில் பல்லிளித்த நேரம். இதற்கு நடவடிக்கை உண்டா இல்லை வழக்கம் போல் திசை திருப்பும் நாடகம்தானா மரியாதைக்குரிய முதல்வர் #ஸ்டாலின் அவர்களே. @mkstalin#CMOTamilnadu #ஸ்டாலின் #SocialJustice pic.twitter.com/n0hZzEywDf
— Kovai Sathyan (@KovaiSathyan) October 13, 2021
ETV Bharat also published a report identifying the teacher as Joyson.
Sudarshan News, therefore, took bits from an actual incident and injected a false communal spin to a separate incident depicted in the viral video.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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