UP’s two ex-ministers under BSP regime get bail after 8-day stint in jail

Two former Uttar Pradesh ministers Nasimuddin Siddiqui and Ram Achal Rajbhar, arrested last week in a case under stringent POCSO Act, were on Wednesday granted bail by a special court for lawmakers.

Special judge P K Rai granted bail to the two former ministers in the BSP supremo Mayawati' erstwhile government on a personal bond of Rs 20,000 each with two sureties of the same amount.

While ordering the release of Siddiqui and Rajbhar n bail, Special Judge Rai warned them against skipping the hearing of the case against them or to influence witnesses.

The two were on January 19 in a case lodged against them for allegedly calling names and using indecent and abusive language against the daughter and mother-in-law of sitting Uttar Pradesh minister Swati Singh in 2016.

Singh's husband Daya Shankar Singh is a senior BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh. The two were arrested after they surrender before the court on January 19 after being declared proclaimed offender for evading their arrests for long, following which Judge Rai had also ordered attachment of their properties. The duo had surrendered before the court profusely apologizing for evading their appearance before it earlier and had applied for interim bail.

The court, however, had dismissed their interim bail plea and remanded them in judicial custody, adjourning their bail pleas for regular hearing on Wednesday. The two were finally granted bail on Wednesday after an eight-day stint in the jail.

Siddiqui, presently a Congress leader, had lost his seat as BSP MLC last year for defecting to the Congress over three years ago. Rajbhar is a senior BSP leader.

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 grand-daughter in a rally in the 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.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)