The Punjab and Haryana High Court-appointed warrant officer, who visited the GMADA headquarters at 2.50 am on Thursday following allegations that senior Punjab government and GMADA officials had been illegally detained there during an Enforcement Directorate search, recorded that the officials told him they were “not detained in the premises illegally”.The warrant officer, Rajan Nanda, also wrote in his report, placed before Justice Sanjay Vashisth’s Bench, that the officers said no undue pressure had been put on them.“All the officers informed me that they are not detained in the premises illegally; no undue pressure has been put on them to sign any paper or concede anything; and they were allowed to talk to their families,” the report said.Nanda said IAS officer and Principal Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Vikas Garg, informed him that he had even been allowed to visit his house for about two hours. GMADA Estate Officer Aman Gupta was allowed to meet his brother, while Land Acquisition Collector Rohit Jindal was also allowed to meet his family.They informed him that their families or friends were allowed to bring food for them.“It was further informed that the women staff was allowed by the Enforcement Directorate to leave the premises by 6.30 pm. They were allowed to seek the assistance/help of their staff rotation-wise,” Nanda added.The report also records that the ED showed him the original survey and search authorisations and explained that the officials’ presence was connected with the downloading, copying or cloning of electronic information.“The officers informed me that the Forensic Team of Enforcement Directorate is downloading/copying/cloning required documents/information from the mobiles, computers and other electronic equipment of the officers in the presence of the officers, and as this process takes time, therefore, their presence is required for this purpose,” Nanda added.The report also recorded that the officials “were allowed to leave the premises for some time after authorising any other officer in whose presence the documents/information can be downloaded/cloned/copied”.The development followed Justice Vashisth’s midnight order of September 23 appointing the warrant officer to visit the GMADA premises and examine the overall situation, including whether any official was being unnecessarily confined and whether a predicate offence had already been registered against the officials or GMADA.The directions by Justice Vashisth came after Punjab approached the High Court with a habeas corpus petition alleging that several officers had been held at the GMADA headquarters since September 22. The petition sought their immediate release and also prayed for a warrant officer to visit the premises and “search for the detenues and set them at liberty”.After considering the report, Justice Vashisth observed: “Faced with the changed situation/circumstances and happening of subsequent events as the search is also over and the alleged detenues have already been set free, Vikram Chaudhary, senior advocate, assisted by Ferry Sofat, Additional Advocate-General, Punjab, seeks withdrawal of the present petition. However, he prays for grant of liberty to avail the remedy by raising all the issues before an appropriate forum, as per law. In view of the above and statement of learned senior counsel for the petitioner, present petition is dismissed as withdrawn, with liberty as sought and recorded here above.”Before parting with the order, Justice Vashisth added that relevant issues, including the locus standi raised by Additional Solicitor-General of India Satya Pal Jain, would remain open.