A teacher at the Saiema Mansoor Public School in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district has been dismissed from duty after he allegedly failed to reciprocate a student’s religious greeting of “Ram Ram”, The Times of India reported on Friday.

The teacher, Mohammed Adnan, was dismissed after Hindutva protestors gathered outside the school, in the Parsara village, on Saturday and recited the Hanuman Chalisa. They also shouted “Jai Shri Ram” slogans, reported the BBC. Police personnel were deployed at the site to maintain law and order.

While The Times of India reported that the student alleged he was reprimanded by Adnan for using the common religious greeting, Hathras Assistant Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar Singh said in a video message that the student and his parents “have denied the occurrence of any such incident and they also gave in writing that nothing as such has happened”.

“The incident came to our knowledge through social media on December 8,” Singh said. “[We] conducted an inquiry speaking to all involved parties but no adverse facts emerged.”

The Times of India quoted Ravendra Kumar, an official in the district administration, as saying: “ A child said ‘Ram Ram’ to his teacher, but he did not respond to the greeting.”

Kumar added: “During the inquiry, the principal apologised and committed to preventing such incidents in the future. The district magistrate has ordered an investigation into the incident and the school management has acted by dismissing the teacher.”

Salman Kidwai, principal of the school, was quoted as saying that children from both Hindu and Muslim communities have studied in the school for the last 30 years. “We never faced such an accusation before,” he said. “We have removed Mohammad Adnan from duty.”

Hathras District Magistrate Archana Verma on Saturday formed a committee comprising a sub-divisional magistrate and a district education officer to look into the matter and submit a report within two days.

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