Police in Hyderabad have booked BJP candidate Kompella Madhavi Latha for checking the ID cards of burqa-clad women voters and asking them to lift their veils.

Malakpet police registered an FIR against Latha, who is pitted against AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi in the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat that voted on Monday.

A video that went viral on social media shows Latha checking the voter ID cards of three burkha-clad women at the Azampura polling centre and asking them to lift their veils to cross-check with the photograph on the card. The incident took place in the presence of at least one woman police officer who is visible in the video clip.

Malakpet police booked Latha under IPC Sections 171C (voluntarily interfering in free exercise of electoral right); 186 (voluntarily obstructing any public servant in the discharge of his public functions); 505 (1) (c) (public mischief with intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community); and 132 of (misconduct at the polling station).

However, Latha defended her action and attributed it to her right as a candidate.

“I am a candidate and as per law, a candidate has a right to check identity cards without the face mask. I am a female. With a lot of humility, I only asked them if I could see their faces and verify them with their ID cards. If somebody wants to make a big issue out of it, that means he’s scared,” she told reporters.

“I am not worried. I have stood up for justice,” she later told reporters who sought her reaction to the FIR.

“Ninety per cent of the booths have got compromised. The police do not want to instruct female constables to check the face with the voter ID,” she alleged.

A well-known social worker, Latha had kicked up a row by shooting an imaginary arrow at the Siddiamber Bazar Mosque in Hyderabad during a procession on April 17. The police had booked her for the alleged offence under IPC Section 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens).

She later apologised although she claimed that the video was incomplete and taken out of context.