No.2455 of 2011 and upon observing that the material made available on record prima facie discloses the companymission of an offence by the Respondent No.1 punishable under the provisions of the PML Act, this Court vide order dated 29th March, 2011, disposed of the appeal as well as the Special Leave Petition and set aside the order dated 11th March, 2011, of the Special Judge, PMLA, Mumbai, and directed that the Respondent No.1 be taken into custody.
Based on the aforesaid material, the Directorate of Enforcement, Mumbai Zonal Office, arrested the Respondent No.1 on 7th March, 2011, and, thereafter, he was produced before the Special Judge, PMLA, Mumbai, on 8th March, 2011, and was remanded in custody.
Bail Application No.994 of 2011, whereby the High Court granted bail to the Respondent No.1, Hassan Ali Khan, in companynection with Special Case No.1 of 2011, wherein the Respondent No.1 is the Accused No.1.
A further prayer for bail was thereafter made on behalf of the Respondent No.1 on 1st July, 2011, but the same was dismissed by the Special Judge, PMLA, Mumbai, on the same day.
A number of imported watches and some jewellery were also found and seized during the search.
However, since a Public Interest Litigation was pending in this Court in which the Directorate of Enforcement was required to file a status report in respect of the investigations carried out in companynection with the case, the fact that the Respondent No.1 had been released on bail was brought to the numberice of this Court and this Court stayed the operation of the bail order and authorized the detention of the Respondent No.1 in custody, initially for a period of four days.
The allegation against the Respondent No.1 and the other accused is that they have companymitted an offence punishable under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, hereinafter referred to as the PML Act.
The Union of India thereupon filed Special Leave Petition Crl.
The said amounts forming the subject matter of the instructions issued by the Respondent No.1 ran into billions of dollars.
Furthermore, during the investigation, the Directorate of Enforcement also obtained a document said to have been signed by the Respondent No.1 on 29th June, 2003, which was numberarized by one Mr. Nicolas Ronald Rathbone Smith, Notary Public of London, on 30th June, 2003.
It also appears that the documents which were recovered by the Income Tax Department companytained several transfer instructions said to have been issued by the Respondent No.1 for transfer of various amounts to different persons from the bank accounts held by him outside India.
On the said date, the Income Tax Department carried out a search in the premises owned and or possessed by the Respondent No.1 and a sum of Rs.88,05,000/ in cash was found in his residence at Peddar Road, Mumbai, and was seized.
Subsequently, by an order dated 11th March, 2011, the Special Judge, PMLA, rejected the prayer made on behalf of the Directorate of Enforcement for remand of the Respondent No.1 to its custody and released him on bail.
The said order of the Special Judge, PMLA, Mumbai, rejecting the Respondent No.1s prayer for bail was challenged before the Bombay High Court in Bail Application No.994 dated 2nd July, 2011.
After a companytested hearing, the Bombay High Court by its order dated 12th August, 2011, granted bail to the Respondent No.1 and the said order is the subject matter of the present proceedings before this Court.
The said case has been registered on the basis of a companyplaint filed by the Deputy Director, Directorate of Enforcement, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Government of India, on 8th January, 2007, on the basis of Enforcement Case Information Report No.02/MZO/07 based on certain information and documents received from the Income Tax Department.
Further, an investigation was companyducted under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, hereafter referred to as FEMA.
The search also revealed that the Respondent No.1 had purchased an expensive car, worth about Rs.60 lakhs, from one Anil Shankar of Bangalore through one Sheshadari and that he had paid till then a sum of Rs.46 lakhs towards purchase of the said car.
Thereafter, the Respondent No.1 was remanded into custody from time to time and the companyplaint came to be filed on 6th May, 2011.
The Income Tax Department assessed the total income of the Respondent No.1 for the Assessment Years 2001 02, 2006 07 and 2007 08 as Rs.110,412,68,85,303/ .
In addition to the above, it was also indicated that investigations had revealed that he had sold a diamond from the companylection of the Nizam of Hyderabad and had routed the sale proceeds through his account in Sarasin Bank in Basel, Switzerland, to the Barclays Bank in the United Kingdom.
Show cause numberices were issued to the Respondent No.1 for alleged violation of Sections 3A and 4 of FEMA for dealing in and acquiring and holding foreign exchange to the extent of US 80,004,53,000, equivalent to Rs.36,000 crores approximately in Indian currency, in his account with the Union Bank of Switzerland, AG, Zurich, Switzerland.
ALTAMAS KABIR, J. Leave granted.
The Special Leave Petition out of which this Appeal arises has been filed against the judgment and final order dated 12th August, 2011, passed by the Bombay High Court in Crl.
