JUDGMENT

S.S. Satheesachandran, J.—Petitioner is the accused in Crime No.526/2013 of Adoor Police Station registered for the offences punishable under Section 3(1)(c) of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order 2000 and Section 6 and 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, for short the Act. He has filed the above application seeking anticipatory bail under section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for short the Code.

2. Allegation is that petitioner who is conducting a hotel had kept in his possession nine empty gas cylinders, five of them earmarked for domestic purposes and the rest, four of them, for commercial purposes, in a building where employees of his hotel were accommodated. Storage of the above cylinders without authority in such premises was detected by Taluk Supply Officer on 24.7.2012, who seized them into custody. Proceedings were initiated under the Act by the District Collector, who, after hearing the petitioner, ordered confiscation of the gas cylinders and handing over them to an Oil Company. District Collector also ordered for initiating prosecution proceedings against petitioner, and thereupon crime was registered against petit