Authors
A 30 second-long video of a man caning and kicking a boy in a classroom was shared on the official Twitter handle of Sudarshan News -a Hindi news channel- claiming, that it showed a Christian teacher thrashing a Hindu student for wearing rudraksha to school in Tamil Nadu. Newschecker found the claim to be false, the incident is shared out of context.
An archived link to the tweet can be accessed here.
The channel’s tweet garnered over 4,00,000 views and has over 4,000 shares. The video was also widely shared on Facebook, with similar claims. The video posted by ‘Dharm Raksha Jagran Samithi’ on the platform has over 6,000 views and over 400 shares.
Using Crowd Tangle -a social media monitoring platform, we found that the video shared with the channel’s claim has thousands of views on Facebook.
Factcheck/Verification
To investigate the claim, Newschecker ran a keyword search on Google which led us to news reports published by BBC Tamil and Republic Bharat dated October 15. According to the reports, the incident occurred in Chidambaram town in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district. The class 12 student from Nandanar Boys High School (Chidambaram Government Nandanar High School) was beaten and kicked by his physics teacher for skipping classes.
Further, we found reports by ANI and The Hindu dated October 16 on the incident. According to both these reports, a case has been registered against the teacher on the basis of the viral video shot by students in the class. The report said that the teacher, identified as Subramanian, has been arrested under the SC-ST prevention of atrocities act.
“I am worried about my child and disappointed by such a brutal act. He has few injuries and was admitted to a government hospital. I appeal to all teachers not to hurt students and make sure such incidents should not happen in the future,” the student’s father, Chandrasekhar told ANI.
Reacting to the communal claim also tweeted by Suresh Chavhanke, the editor in chief of Sudarshan News, Chengalpattu district’s SP Vijay Kumar tweeted saying, ‘This is Fakenews’ and tagged Twitter India.
Speaking to Newschecker, Inspector Arumugam from the local police station said, “The claim shared with the viral video is false. The teacher is booked under SC/ST Act and he is arrested. The matter is under investigation.”
Conclusion:
A video of a teacher thrashing a student for skipping the classes is falsely shared in a communal context.
Result: Misleading
Our Sources:
Police Verification
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