An incident from Jharkhand came up where a teacher was allegedly assaulted for forbidding Muslim students from attending Namaz. On July 29, the tragedy happened in the Goilkera block of the West Singhbum district. According to reports, Joba Manjhi’s close aide Akbar Khan, a local leader of the ruling party Jharkhand Mukti Morch (JMM), beat up Ramendra Dubey, a teacher at a government school, in front of students.

According to reports, Khan was already present on the school grounds on Friday, July 29, when Dubey arrived at 9 AM. Khan called him, and Dubey responded to that he would talk after recording the students’ attendance. Following him, Khan began pounding him after grabbing his collar from behind.

Khan questioned Dubey about why Muslim students were not permitted to attend Namaz at 11:30 when he asked him why he had beaten him. Khan claimed that students have asked him about namaz and the teacher did not allow them but Dubey rejected his claims and asserted that he had never prevented anyone from performing Namaz. Khan, according to Dubey, allegedly threatened to kill him.

On the same day, Dubey attempted to complain about Khan at the Goilkera Police Station. However, it was claimed that the Police turned down his case due to Khan’s supposed affiliation with the government. When submitting his complaint on July 30, an FIR was only filed after he deleted the portion of the complaint that mentioned Namaz.

According to Akbar Khan, no such assault occurred. At the time of the break, at 11:50 AM, he remarked, that any student who wishes to go home for Namaz or Pooja should be permitted to do so.

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