The Uttar Pradesh police have registered an FIR against three journalists in Kanpur accusing them of "public mischief" and "criminal intimidation" in connection with a news report, which alleged that government school students "shivered in biting cold while government officials were busy with an event" last week.
The journalists in Kanpur's Dehat district work for the local TV channel that aired the news report.
Sunil Dutt, the district Basic Education Officer, has alleged in his police complaint that the journalists were not present at the event, yet they "misrepresented the yoga and exercise programme that was conducted to mark UP Diwas."
Several visuals from the programme show the children in their summer uniform, performing exercises and yoga asanas.
After the new report surfaced, officials claimed that the children were made to remove their winter clothes only for the exercises.
"It is well-known that yoga and physical exercises cannot be carried out in winter wear and requires loose clothing. Local education officials followed this and made the children take off their winter clothing and wear loose and light clothes for the exercises and then all the children immediately put on their winter wear again," the complaint read.
"I am very pained to see that some journalists, who were not even there, have published news that the children were shivering in the cold. You can see that a child who performs Yoga cannot do it wearing a sweater or a coat or a pant. These children have performed very well, I appreciate them. Those who have carried this report... we are looking at who has done it," Kanpur dehat district magistrate Dinesh Chandra Singh said.