SREEKALA K. Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein is the 3rd accused in Crime No.VC.02/18/CRE of the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau, Central Range, Ernakulam. She is aggrieved by the freezing of Exts P5 and P6 bank accounts in her name, pursuant to Exts P1 and P2 requests made by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, attached to the 4th respondent VACB. The specific ground raised is the non-adherence to the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1944 to freeze/attach the bank accounts of the petitioner. It is also urged that recourse to any of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure is also not made. Another contention urged is that the accounts has been freezed without any enabling orders from a judicial authority. The seriousness of the issues involved impelled this Court to appoint an amicus curiae. Accordingly, Sri.John S. Ralph was appointed as the amicus.

(2.) Heard the learned amicus; learned counsel for the petitioner; learned Special Public Prosecutor(CBI); the learned counsel for the 2nd respondent Bar Council; and learned counsel for the 3rd respondent, Dhanlaxmi Bank.

(3.) Before addressing the specific issues which have surfaced for consideration, it is noticed that the offences alleged in the subject crime bearing F.I.R No. RC0342022A0001 of the Special Court - I(CBI), Ernakulam are under Ss. 109, 120B, 409, 420 and 477A of the Indian Penal Code, read with Ss. 13(2) and 13(1)(c) and (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. There are 9 accused altogether, of whom the petitioner is the wife of the 1st accused. The gist of the prosecution allegation is that, the 1st accused (petitioner's husband), while working as the Accountant of the Kerala Bar Council, had misappropriated money to the tune of Rs.7.6 Crores from the Kerala Bar Council Welfare fund during the period from 2007 to 2017. According to the prosecution, the petitioner had conspired with and abetted the commission of the crime, by siphoning off the amount misappropriated through two of her bank accounts, maintained with the 3rd respondent Dhanlaxmi Bank, to the extent of Rs.96.00 lakhs, approximately.