New Delhi:

The headmaster of a school in UP’s Mirzapur has been arrested after a shocking photograph – showing him holding a young boy by his leg and dangling him from the top floor of the school building – was widely shared on social media.

The teacher – Manoj Vishwakarma – also threatened the young boy – Sonu Yadav, understandably crying with fear – telling him he would drop him unless he apologised for biting another student while students of several classes were playing outside during the lunch break on Thursday.

An enraged headmaster then grabbed Sonu, who is a Class 2 student, dragged him up to the top floor, and threatened to drop him if he did not say ‘sorry’.

#UPPolice#Mzppic.twitter.com/1Yo07qhvEN

— Mirzapur Police (@mirzapurpolice) October 28, 2021

Sonu was only released after a crowd of children gathered – they had heard the boy’s screaming and crying – and the headmaster was forced to let the boy down.

The young boy’s father told NDTV the headmaster’s actions were “wrong” but also claimed that he had acted out of “love” and he didn’t have any problem with the treatment of his son.

“What the teacher did was wrong but guruji (the teacher) did out of love. That is why we don’t have any problem,” the father, Ranjit Yadav, said.

Manoj Vishwakarma, arrested and charged under sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, told NDTV “his (Sonu’s) father had asked us to ‘correct’ him”.

“Sonu is very mischievous… he bites children, he also bites teachers. His father asked us to correct him. So, we tried to scare him. He was hung upside down from the upper floor for fear,” he said.