SAHIL RAJ Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petition has been filed to defreeze the bank account of the petitioner which has been freezed in pursuant to the registration of FIR in crime No.33 of 2021 on the file of the first respondent.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that the cheating committed by anonymous person by using whats app No.9003174336 who offered a part time job to the complainant in flipkart and for the purpose of getting job, complainant had followed the instructions of the anonymous person who directed the complainant to open a link i.e. www.U12.in and to open an account. He had followed the instructions of the anonymous person and invested a sum of Rs.5,58,749.00 in 26 instalments via Oceanpay link and the amount was sent to the Account No.110009711723 IFSC: CNRB 0019454 (while putting this information in various bank applications the auto-fetch name of the account holder is displayed as Ankit Bansal). Further alleged that the payments made through his mobile phone by using phonepe, google pay account and Punjab National Bank net banking and the anonymous person further told him to deposit a sum of Rs.60,000.00 in order to complete the task and only after depositing Rs.60,000.00 he will get full amount. However, he could not make the said payment.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is the sole proprietor of his proprietorship business 'AD Street' with GSTIN 07BUHPR7097E1Z4 which engaged in the work of printing business and also engaged in the work trading i.e. purchase and sale of virtual digital assets i.e. crypto currency on different exchanges. While being so, he had received an order of purchase of USDT (virtual digital asset in the form of crypto currency) from a user named Raj Ghosh on 21/10/2021. He had made payment of Rs.89,000.00 for the said purchase which is linked with his HDFC Bank current account by phonepe application. He had released the said crypto currency within 15 days to the said Raj Ghosh. While being so, the first respondent issued notice under Sec. 91 of Cr.P.C. to the Branch Manager of Punjab National Bank, Inderpuri, New Delhi and directed to freeze the petitioner's account. The first respondent has no jurisdiction under Sec. 91 of Cr.P.C. to freeze the petitioner's account. It cannot be termed under Sec. 102 of Cr.P.C. Admittedly, the petitioner is not an accused in crime No.33 of 2021. The first respondent also freezed the petitioner's following accounts'