Aryanad police on Thursday arrested Vellanad panchayat vice-president Vellanadu Sreekantan on charges of hurling casteist slur on panchayat secretary Sindhu L here on Thursday.

He was slapped with charges under SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) act. He will be produced in the court later. Sreekantan was held from his residence and he has been charged with non-bailable offences, police said.

Sindhu L filed a complaint against Sreekantan saying that he barged into her office where she was holding a meeting, verbally abused her using caste-based remarks in front of other staff and threatened to assault her.

"We had a meeting at the Collectorate on January 5 and it was directed to clear pending files. We held a staff meeting the other day during which the vice-president forcefully entered my office and used casteist slur," said Sindhu.

Vellanad panchayat authorities refuted the allegations. Panchayat president K S Rajalekshmi said that the Secretary had resorted to abusive use of language at the representatives of the local body.

"We have had instances where the Secretary would use unparliamentary language when she would be asked about administrative lapses. There was an issue on maintenance of crematorium in the panchayat and she refused to sanction advance. When questioned about this, the Secretary responded in a rude manner.

"Recently people complained to us about the delay in the clearance of files and queues were building up. Sreekantan went to enquire about this and she was holding a staff meeting at that time. She spoke rudely and used offensive terms," said Rajalekshmi.