ORDER

The petitioner herein is the 1st accused in C.C. No.635 of 2022 on the files of the Judicial Magistrate of the First Class, Alathur. In the aforesaid case, he is facing prosecution for having committed the offences punishable under Section 7 of the Kerala Money Lenders Act , Section 3 of the Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act, 2012 and Section 420 of the IPC .

2. By a common order dated 14.09.2020 in BA No.4299 of 2020 and connected cases, the petitioner herein and the rest of the accused were granted pre-arrest bail by imposing certain conditions by this Court. Among other conditions, the accused were directed to surrender their passports before the Investigating Officer, and the same were ordered to be produced before the jurisdictional court. The petitioner contended that in terms of the directions issued, the passport was surrendered. It is contended that the period of validity of the passport has expired, and he is required to renew the passport for a further period. It is also submitted that the petitioner wants to go abroad for a period of one year. According to the learned counsel, since the passport was surrendered based on the directions issued by this