Laravel 5.1 , Downloading an image using REST Api

I am developing an API stack which will be consumed by android and iOS devices. one API method is supposed to be used to download an image from the server. I have used the followng code to initiate a download, but when i tested using Hurl, the method is forever returning 0 bytes.

if(file_exists($file)) //$file contains absolute path
            {
                EventLogger::info('##### Downloading the file#### ' );
                  $filename = basename($file);
                  $headers = array('Content-Type: image/png');
                response()->download($file,$filename,$headers);
            }

In the routes.php I have

Route::get('files/downloadimage/{cardid}', ['middleware'=>'jwt.auth', 'uses' => 'FilesController@downloadcardimage'])->name('files.download');

Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong.

via Chebli Mohamed