DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT Vs. P V PRABHAKAR RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The respondent apprehended that he would be arrested in connection with "Urea Scam". He approached the High Court of Andhra Pradesh for an order under S. 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short "the Code"). A single Judge of the High Court initially granted an interim order in his favour and finally passed the impugned order making the interim order absolute. The Chief Enforcement Officer, Directorate of Enforcement ("Enforcement Director" for short) has filed this special leave petition.

(3.) It is not necessary to set out details of the case, yet we give a brief sketch of it. A fraud costing a whopping sum of Rs. 133 crores was perpetrated by some individuals after hatching a criminal conspiracy. A company by name M/s. National Fertilizers Ltd. entered into a deal with a Turkish company known as M/s. Karsans Inc for the supply of urea worth 38 million US Dollars. The entire amount was paid to the Turkish company through the countrys foreign exchange reserve without getting even an ounce of urea in return. It was later discovered that the siphoning of such a huge foreign exchange was the result of a well orchestrated conspiracy hatched by some individuals in and out of India. The Turkish company in return paid a substantial amount to "middlemen" as "kickbacks". The recipients of such kickbacks included those in India and abroad.