This was the second time in the day Madhavi Latha was booked. Earlier in the day, she was accused of heckling Muslim voters and officials.
BJP candidate in Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency Madhavi Latha (Ajay Tomar/ South First)
BJP leader K Madhavi Latha, the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from the Hyderabad constituency, was on Monday, 13 May, booked for obstructing police from doing their duty.
She stands accused of barging into a police station, arguing with cops, and taking away two BJP men whom police had detained.
She also allegedly took away dummy electronic voting machines (EVMs) that police had seized from these two BJP workers.
This was the second time in the day she was booked for her actions. This was also the day Telangana and several other states were voting in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier in the day, the saffron party leader was booked for heckling Muslim women voters and officials inside polling booths.
On Monday, the latest FIR against Madhavi Latha was registered at the Mangalhat Police Station in Hyderabad.
The FIR was based on a complaint by Head Constable (HC) G Sathyanarayana to the station house officer (SHO) of the police station.
In it, the head constable said two men — identified as Rakesh Goud and Bunty — were brought to the police station around 11 am.
They allegedly had with them dummy EVMs that bore BJP’s electoral symbols.
Sathyanarayana said Madhavi Latha and some other persons came to the police station within an hour — 11.55 am, to be exact.
The HC said she “argued with me and obstructed my legitimate duties” by taking away this duo as well as the dummy EVMs.
Subsequently, she was booked under Sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 224 (escapes or attempts to escape from any custody), and 225 (internationally resist lawful arrest) of the IPC.
Earlier in the day, Madhavi Latha and BJP’s Nizamabad Lok Sabha candidate Arvind Dharmapuri were seen heckling burqa-clad voters as well as polling officials in polling booths in Telangana.
They were caught on camera questioning Muslim women voters regarding their identities during polling on Monday.
Madhavi Latha was booked after a video clip surfaced, in which she was purportedly heard asking burqa-clad women Muslim voters to show their faces and reveal their age to compare with the photo identity cards.
In another video, Madhavi Latha was seen arguing with poll officials inside the polling booth while voting was underway.
She was last month booked for gesturing the shooting of an arrow at a mosque in the Siddi Amber Bazaar area of Hyderabad during the Sri Rama Navami Shobha yatra.
During the Ram Navami yatra on 17 April, Latha made the gesture of drawing an arrow from an imaginary quiver and shooting it at the mosque.
(Edited by Arkadev Ghoshal)
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