More than a year after a government school teacher in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district asked students of class 6 to slap their classmate 168 times for not completing her homework, the teacher has been arrested and remanded in 14-day judicial custody by a court.
Thandla tehsil's Judicial Magistrate First Class Jai Patidar has also turned down the bail plea of the teacher, additional district prosecution officer Ravi Prakash Rai said.
35-year-old Manoj Verma had allegedly directed students to slap the girl, then studying in Class 6 at Jawahar Navodaya School in Thandla town, in January last year, he said.
According to the girl's father Shiv Pratap Singh, his daughter did not go to school from January 1 to 10, 2018 as she was unwell.
On January 11, when the girl went to school without completing her homework, Verma told her classmates to slap her as a form of punishment following which 14 girls slapped her two times every day for six days.
He then lodged a complaint with the school management following which a committee to probe the incident was constituted.
The panel found the teacher guilty and suspended him, the prosecutor said.
In the meantime, Singh also lodged a complaint with the police against the teacher under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
He told police that his daughter was distressed and fell ill following the incident and had to be admitted to a local hospital. She also refused to go to school.
The teacher was arrested in connection with the offence on Monday and denied bail by the court the same day.
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