A purported video showing Himachal Pradesh Assembly Deputy Speaker Hans Raj slapping a school student in Chamba district has surfaced on social media.

However, the child's father, Riaz Mohammad, downplayed the incident that took place on Thursday, saying the deputy speaker's hand had brushed against his son while he was trying to make him understand something.

In the clip, Hans Raj can be seen talking to the students of a government school in his assembly segment Churah when one of them started laughing. The deputy speaker was then seen slapping the boy.

Congress MLA Vikramaditya Singh termed the incident "unfortunate and unacceptable".

The student's father, in a video shared on Facebook, said Hans Raj had "just touched" his son and some mischievous elements shot a video and circulated it on the internet, he said.

Mohammad's video was shared by Hans Raj on his Facebook page.