A village sarpanch in Thane's Bhiwandi taluka was allegedly beaten to death by a group of persons, police said today.
Four persons, including prime accused Vaibhav Jagannath Patil, have been arrested so far in connection with the murder, they said.
On Friday, when the meeting of Khambala Group Grampanchayat was in progress, Vaibhav gate-crashed and demanded an explanation from sarpanch Mangesh Shantaram Patil (40) as to why the issue of forest land was not being looked into, Padgha police station inspector K C Pasalkar said.
The accused allegedly abused the panchayat members, he said.
Later, the sarpanch lodged a complaint against him at the Padgha police station accusing him of misbehaving during the panchayat meeting, he said.
Apparently annoyed over the complaint, Vaibhav and eight other villagers waylaid the sarpanch while he was on his way to office of deputy sarpanch at Dhabad village on Ambadi-Pali road last evening.
Vaibhav along with other villagers allegedly attacked Patil with iron rods following which the latter died, the police official said.
Police have registered offences against the accused persons under sections 302 (murder), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, Pasalkar said, adding four of the accused have been arrested so far.
