Watch: Woman thrashed by village sarpanch, his friends in Andhra

A woman from Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh is seen being beaten up by the village sarpanch in a video that has gone viral. 

The incident came to light on Thursday after police arrested the sarpanch, Mekala Nagaraju, his follower Chandrasekhar and a third person, reports The Hindustan Times. The police took action following a complaint by the victim Sudha. 

#WATCH: Woman beaten by village Sarpanch & his friend in Andhra Pradesh's Kuderu,as she refused to agree for construction outside her house pic.twitter.com/XLIL2m0bYa

— ANI (@ANI_news) February 3, 2017

The police have charged him under Sections 354 (assault on woman with intention to outrage her modesty) and 355 (assault to dishonour a person) and 332 (hurting a person without provocation) of the Indian Penal Code.

The incident took place after Sudha, a widow, objected to the installation of a drinking water tank. Sudha and the sarpanch belong to the Telugu Desam Party and are on the local Janmabhoomi committee which looks after the developmental activities of the village. 

The water tank, which was supposed to have been at the sarpanch's house, was going to installed in front of Sudha's house to which she objected. “She picked up an argument with the sarpanch over the relocation of the water tank. An enraged Nagaraju started beating her up and the others joined him,” said Kudero sub-inspector.