The row followed an earlier clip wrongly linked to Rampur, while an official survey found students already had a usable route but travelled nearly 4km to reach school daily
Meerut: An FIR was registered against five identified and one unidentified persons after Rampur administration alleged they deliberately made around 15 schoolchildren, aged 8-12, stand in knee-deep water in Ghugha river to record a 39-second protest video over the absence of a permanent bridge, putting the children at risk for political purposes. The case was registered at Sawar police station on the orders of DM Ajay Kumar Dwivedi under BNS sections 125 (acts endangering human life or personal safety), and 353 (statements conducing to public mischief). Police named Gautam, Shivam, Noor Hasan, Shamim-ul-Hasan and Sunil Kumar in the FIR, along with one unidentified person, after block education officer Fotu Lal lodged the complaint.
The FIR alleged that the group arranged the photography and videography to make the earlier claim appear genuine and circulated the material through social media and other platforms.
Because of the absence of a bridge, while district administration said that the footage was actually from Chamoli district in Uttarakhand, the controversy followed an earlier video posted on X by Bhim Army chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad, who claimed it showed children crossing a river in Rampur.
“The party supporters deliberately led the students to the river, which was life-threatening, and recorded this clip to defame the administration,” the FIR said. The FIR alleged that after the administration countered that claim, supporters of Azad Samaj Party deliberately took children into Ghugha river, filmed them there and circulated the clip to portray a similar situation in Rampur.