JUDGMENT

Thomas, J.-Special leave granted.

These two appeals are directed against an order passed by the Delhi High Court which interfered with the order passed by a Sessions Judge dismissing a petition filed by one businessman called Ashok Kumar Jain (who will be referred to as the respondent) for pre-arrest bail.

2. Some officials of the Enforcement Directorate under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (‘FERA’ for short) conducted a raid in the residential premises of the respondent on 4-1-1997 and seized certain documents which they considered very useful for unearthing instances of large scale FERA violations. The said raid was followed by a few other raids and the Enforcement Directorate (for convenience it is referred to as “the Directorate”) has now started investigation into the alleged FERA violations against the respondent involving millions of US Dollars. Summons were issued to the respondent to appear before the Directorate for interrogation. On 5-1-1997 respond­ent left India. Though summons were repeated many times respondent did not reciprocate to any one of them and instead he moved the Sessions Court of Delhi for anticipatory bail. In the application (f