S. Muralidhar, J.

The Petitioner, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, has filed the present writ petition on 1st February 2018 seeking issuance for a writ of habeas corpus for releasing the Petitioner from custody. He has sought a declaration that issuance of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) dated 24th January 2018, his arrest pursuant thereto on 25th January 2018 in ECIR/HQ/17/2017 and the consequent remand orders passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, (PMLA) (hereinafter referred to as the ‘trial Court’) is without the authority of law and in violation of Articles 14, 21 and 22 of the Constitution of India. The Petitioner also prayed for mandamus to the Directorate of Enforcement (DOE) (Respondent No. 2) and the Union of India through the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance (Respondent No. 1) to provide him a certified copy of ECIR/HQ/17/2017 dated 27th October 2017, and the application filed by Respondent No. 2 before the trial Court for issuance of warrants and the grounds of arrest, if any, recorded while arresting the Petitioner.

2. Accompanying the writ petition is Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 2151 of 2018 in which the Petitioner has prayed for grant of interim bail in the aforesaid ECIR/HQ/17/2017 during the pendency of the writ petition.

3. The writ petition came up for hearing on 5th February 2018 when notice was issued to the Respondents and accepted by Mr. Amit Mahajan, learned Central Government Standing counsel. The notice was made returnable on 13th February 2018 and the Respondents were permitted to file a short reply. Pursuant thereto, on 13th February 2018 a short affidavit dated 12th February 2018 of Mr. Mohit Redhu, Assistant Director (PMLA), has been filed on behalf of the Respondents.

4. The Court has heard the submissions of Mr. Vikram Chaudhary, learned Senior counsel appearing for the Petitioner and Mr. Amit Mahajan, learned counsel for the Respondents.

Factual background

5. The factual background is that the Income Tax Department conducted a search operation in the premises of the group entities of Sterling Biotech Limited (SBL) under section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘IT Act’). The Petitioner, who is a permanent resident at Vadodara, Gujarat, is one of the directors of SBL.

6. During the income tax raid various documents were stated to have been seized. The documents are said to have revealed that “huge amount of cash had been given to various government servants.” Following this the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR on 30th August 2017 for commission of offences under Section 13 (2) read with section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act) read with Section 120 B IPC. Since the offences were also those mentioned in the Schedule to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), the DOE recorded an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) being ECIR/HQ/15/2017 in relation to the offence of money laundering under Section 3 PMLA punishable under Section 4 PMLA. It is stated that statements of certain persons were recorded in the said ECIR under Sections 50 (2) and 50(3) of the PMLA. It is stated by the Respondents that the promoters/directors of SBL including the Petitioner have since been absconding. Specific to the Petitioner it is stated that despite issuance of several summons in the months of September and October 2017, the last being 23rd October 2017, he did not join the investigation.

7. During the course of investigation, another FIR No. RCD-I/2017/E/0007 dated 25th October 2017 was registered by the CBI against SBL, its Directors including the Petitioner, one chartered accountant and a former director of Andhra Bank as well as other known and unknown public servants for commission of offences under Sections 13 (2), 13 (1) of the PC Act and Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC read with Section 120-B IPC. The central allegation in the said FIR is that huge credit facilities and loans were obtained by SBL and its si