Lucknow, Jan 20 (PTI) A special court for lawmakers here on Wednesday deferred the hearing by two days on bail pleas of two former Uttar Pradesh ministers Nasimuddin Siddiqui and Ram Achal Rajbhar, arrested in a case under stringent POCSO Act.

Special Judge P K Rai slated their the hearing to January 22 on the prosecution counsel's contention that they needed some more time to respond to their bail pleas.

The two ministers in the erstwhile BSP government were arrested on Tuesday after they surrender before the court in wake of the judge ordering the attachment of their properties after declaring them proclaimed offender for evading their arrest in the case.

Siddiqui is presently in the Congress party. A former national general secretary of the BSP, he had lost his membership of the UP legislative council last July, nearly two and half years after defecting to the Congress. Rajbhar is a senior BSP leader.

The case against the duo was registered allegedly for calling names to and using indecent language against the daughter and mother-in-law of sitting Uttar Pradesh minister Swati Singh.

Singh's husband Daya Shankar Singh is a senior BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh.

The case against the duo had been lodged by Swati Singh's mother-in-law Tetra Devi at Hazratganj police on July 22, 2016.

She had alleged that Mayawati had hurled abuses on her family in Rajya Sabha a few days earlier while the BSP workers led by Siddiqui and Rajbhar had hurled same abuses against her family, including her minor granddaughter, at Ambedkar Statue Park in Hazratganj a few days later.

The police had filed charge-sheet against the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)