A 34-year-old man was stripped half-naked, punched, and forced to pick up a shoe with his mouth in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, following which the prime accused and his two accomplices were arrested based on the viral video, police said on Monday.
The victim, with his hands tied behind his back, is seen pleading for mercy in the video clip, which is more than two years old.
A property dispute seems to be the prima facie trigger behind the crime, a police officer said.
“On seeing the video, we have arrested the prime accused Jawahar Singh (55), a member of the Gond tribe, and his two accomplices,” Rewa Superintendent of Police Vivek Singh told PTI.
He said the video, which started doing rounds of social media last week, was recorded in May 2021 at Piprahi village under the Hanumna police station limits in Rewa.
While the prime accused is tribal, the victim is an upper caste, according to police.
The police officer said the prime accused is employed as a clerk at a government school and is the husband of a village sarpanch.
"He kidnapped the other man, stripped him half naked, tied his hands behind the back, punched him, and made him pick up a shoe by his mouth," the SP said.
An FIR has been registered against Jawahar Singh and two others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code on Saturday.
A local court remanded the trio in judicial custody.
Recently, an incident of a man urinating on a tribal youth in Sidhi district in Madhya Pradesh caused a huge outrage after a viral video.
Rewa and Sidhi districts fall under the Vindhya region of MP.