ORDER

ALTAMAS KABIR, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. 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. Bail Application No.994 of 2011, whereby the High Court granted bail to the Respondent No.1, Hassan Ali Khan, in connection with Special Case No.1 of 2011, wherein the Respondent No.1 is the Accused No.1.

3. The allegation against the Respondent No.1 and the other accused is that they have committed an offence punishable under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, hereinafter referred to as `the PML Act'. The said case has been registered on the basis of a complaint 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. 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. A number of imported watches and some jewellery were also found and seized during the search.

4. 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. It also appears that the documents which were recovered by the Income Tax Department contained 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. The said amounts forming the subject matter of the instructions issued by the Respondent No.1 ran into billions of dollars. 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/-. 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 notarized by one Mr. Nicolas Ronald Rathbone Smith, Notary Public of London, on 30th June, 2003.

5. Further, an investigation was conducted under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, hereafter referred to as `FEMA'. Show-cause notices 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.

6. Inquiries also revealed that Shri Hassan Ali Khan had obtained at least three Passports in his name by submitting false documents, making false statements and by suppressing the fact that he already had a Passport. In addition to the above, it was also indicated that investigations had revealed that he had sold a diamond from the collection 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.

7. 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. 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. However, since a Public Interest Litigation was pending in this Court in which the Directorate of Enforcement was required to file a status