A Class 6 student of a school in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district was allegedly slapped 168 times by her classmates for not completing her homework, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday. The girl, a student of Navoday school in Thandla town, was punished on the orders of the teacher.

The girl’s father filed a police complaint against the teacher, Manoj Verma, when the matter came to light on Wednesday evening. The girl said that she was unable to finish her homework because she had taken leave due to an illness.

“This made the teacher angry, and he instructed my 14 classmates to slap me twice every day until the assignment was finished,” the student said in her complaint. The girl took six days – from January 11 to 16 – to finish her homework, by which time she had been slapped 168 times.

Verma allegedly justified the punishment. He told the girl’s father that the Right to Education Act forbids corporal punishment by teachers, but does not prevent other students from doing so. Shiv Sagar, the school’s principal, told the girl’s father that it was a “friendly punishment, where the classmates did not hit her hard, so she could perform better in the future.”

Thandla police inspector Shersingh Baghel said the student had been sent for a medical examination. Collector Ashish Saxena told the Hindustan Times that he was told of the incident. “I shall wait for the police to conclude their inquiry before taking appropriate action.”