New Delhi Jan 28 PTI The Delhi High Court Friday directed the CBI to recall the lookout circular LOC issued against businessman Sathish Babu Sana in connection with a corruption case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi and the probe agencys ex-director A P SinghJustice Mukta Gupta also directed that Sana will continue to join the investigation as and when directedThe judge said there was no justification in continuing with the LOC as the petitioner Sana neither deliberately evaded arrest nor failed to appear before the trial court and did not misuse the concession given to him to travel abroad several timesHence the respondent CBI is directed to recall its request for opening the LOC against the petitioner It is further directed thatthe petitioner will continue to join the investigation as and when directed by the Investigating Officer the court ordered The petitioner thus satisfies the test laid down by this Court in SumerSingh Salkan as he has neither deliberately evaded arrest nor failedto appear before the Trial Court despite the non-bailable warrants nor hasany coercive action been taken against him and he has travelled abroadnumber of times with the permission of the Court which concession he didnot misuse and therefore there is no justification in continuing with the LOCopened against the petitioner it observed Sana had challenged the LOC on the ground that there was no complaint that he was not cooperating in the investigation and he was not an accused in the caseThe court was informed by Sanas counsel that LOC issued against Qureshi and businessman Pradeep Koneru who are allegedly involved in the case have already been quashed by a trial court and the high court respectivelyIn his petition Sana had said that the FIR was lodged on February 17 2017 and since then he travelled abroad 15-16 times and returned to India each timeHe alleged that the LOC issued against him was thus unfounded illegal mala fide arbitrary and violates his fundamental rights under the ConstitutionHe also contended that according to a Ministry of Home Affairs office memorandum of 2010 and a high court judgement of the same year a LOC can be issued only when a cognisable offence under the IPC or other penal laws has been alleged against an accused or if the accused was deliberately evading arrestThe CBI counsel had contended that Sanas role had come up in the case and the purpose of issuing LOC against him was that he should not leave the countryThe agency had claimed that Sana was required for further investigation and urged the court to direct him to give details of his assets and properties as he wanted to go abroad where he has businessThe FIR for which Sana was being questioned was lodged in 2017 by the CBI after the ED and Income Tax departments probe into money laundering and black money allegations against Qureshi allegedly revealed the involvement of senior public servantsThe ED had written a letter to the CBI in this regard and it had in 2017 lodged an FIR against meat exporter Moin Qureshi as well as former CBI director A P Singh and several others PTI ADS RKS RKS

New Delhi Jan 28 PTI The Delhi High Court Friday directed the CBI to recall the look out circular LOC issued against businessman Sathish Babu Sana in connection with a corruption case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi and the probe agencys ex-director A P SinghThe respondent is directed to recall the LOC said Justice Mukta Gupta who had reserved verdict on the businessmans petition challenging the LOC earlier this monthSana had challenged the LOC on the ground that there was no complaint that he was not cooperating in the investigation and he was not an accused in the caseThe court was informed by Sanas counsel that LOC issued against Qureshi and businessman Pradeep Koneru who are allegedly involved in the case have already been quashed by a trial court and the high court respectivelyIn his petition Sana had said that the FIR was lodged on February 17 2017 and since then he travelled abroad 15-16 times and returned to India each timeHe alleged that the LOC issued against him was thus unfounded illegal mala fide arbitrary and violates his fundamental rights under the ConstitutionHe also contended that according to a Ministry of Home Affairs office memorandum of 2010 and a high court judgement of the same year an LOC can be issued only when a cognisable offence under the IPC or other penal laws has been alleged against an accused or if the accused was deliberately evading arrestThe CBI counsel had contended that Sanas role had come up in the case and the purpose of issuing LOC against him was that he should not leave the countryThe agency had claimed that Sana was required for further investigation and urged the court to direct him to give details of his assets and properties as he wanted to go abroad where he has businessThe FIR for which Sana was being questioned was lodged in 2017 by the CBI after the ED and Income Tax departments probe into money laundering and black money allegations against Qureshi allegedly revealed involvement of senior public servantsThe ED had written a letter to the CBI in this regard and it had in 2017 lodged an FIR against meat exporter Moin Qureshi as well as its former director A P Singh and several others PTI ADS SA