Controversy breaks out after UP school ‘expels’ 7-year-old boy who brought non-veg biryani in tiffin

“The mother of the boy has lodged a complaint claiming her son was beaten up by the school principal and was termed a religious fundamentalist. She also claimed that the principal told her that he had struck off the boy’s name from the school register and that there was no need to send him to the school in the future. I have ordered a time-bound enquiry and will take action based on the report,” V P Singh, the District Inspector of Schools (DIOS), said.

Singh, who governs all government-recognised schools in the district, has formed a three-member committee and directed that it submit a report by Monday. The committee comprises principals of three government schools in Amroha district.

Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Monica Kumari said that “strict action” would be taken if the report found the principal guilty.

The school principal, however, dismissed the charges against him as baseless. “I did not beat the boy up and he was confined to the computer room under the supervision of a teacher. The boy damaged the temple within the school campus and offered biryani to his classmates, which was objected to by their parents. I had called a parent-teacher meeting on Wednesday but his mother blamed me,” the principal said.

A purported video of the conversation between the principal and the mother went viral where he can be heard saying that the boy’s name was struck off from the school register. “Ghar le jaavo isse. Aise bachon ki yahan jaroorat nahi hai, (Take him home. We do not need such students here,” the principal purportedly says in the video.

Local Muslim Committee members staged a demonstration against the incident at the Amroha tehsil headquarters on Thursday and submitted a memorandum addressed to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to Sudhir Kumar, Sub Divisional Magistrate, Amroha.

Haji Khursheed Anwar, the president of the Muslim Committee, said that the incident was unfortunate. “We have demanded that the recognition of the school be cancelled and strict punitive action be taken against the guilty,” he said.