The bail application of two accused in the Ram temple donation theft case was deferred on Wednesday after the local bar association raised objections following the filing of the police chargesheet.

Advocate Kul Shekhar Singh said the court will now hear the bail pleas of Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar alias Tinnu Yadav on Thursday.

Special Judge Rajat Verma was scheduled to hear the applications before the Anti-Corruption Court on Wednesday. However, the hearing could not proceed after the bar association raised objections over the filing of the chargesheet.

Singh said the court has taken cognisance of the chargesheet, but the accused have not yet received a copy of the document.

“Once we receive the copy of the chargesheet, which runs into thousands of pages, further legal action or response from our side will be decided,” he said.

Singh also said information available with the local bar association indicates that the chargesheet does not name former Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust officials Anil Mishra, Champat Rai and Gopal Rao as accused.

The bar association had earlier approached the police and sought their inclusion in the investigation.

The court had on Monday rejected the bail pleas of Avinash Shukla, Manish Kumar Yadav and Ram Shankar Mishra. On Tuesday, it rejected the bail applications of Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey.

Singh said the court has also extended the judicial custody of these six accused by 14 days.

Most of the accused are bank employees who handled the counting of cash donations at the temple. Investigators allege that Srivastava supervised the donation-counting process, while Tinnu Yadav worked as a driver and was a close aide of former Trust general secretary Champat Rai.

The case involves allegations of embezzlement and theft of cash and valuables donated by devotees at the Ram temple. Police arrested eight people after registering an FIR on June 25 based on a preliminary report submitted by a state government-appointed Special Investigation Team.

The prosecution has claimed that investigators recovered Rs 79.85 lakh in connection with the case.

The SIT had earlier informed the Supreme Court that it would file the chargesheet by September 25.