MOHAMMED SAIFULLAH Vs. RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The issue by many of the citizens currently face is the freezing of the account on instruction from the local Police or from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Many a times, the account holders have been taken into surprise that by such order of freezing, before they could realize as to why and for what purpose the accounts are freezed, enough damages are caused to their day to day financial life, since the very life- line of the business gets severed by such unilateral orders of account freezing passed by the Police.

(2.) No doubt, the statutes empower the investigation agency to request the Bank to freeze the account pending investigation and intimate it forthwith to the jurisdiction Court, but whether the power is properly exercised or not is the moot question now looming large and in the several judgments of the Courts across the India, it had been categorically held that there cannot be freezing of account perpectually without intimating the account holders what for their account is freezed and what extent it has to be freezed. Even then, day in and day out, this Court receives applications to defreeze the account pointing out the failure of the investigating agency not only to the account holders, even to the jurisdictional Court not intimating about the freezing of the account as per Sec. 102 of Cr.P.C. equivalent to 106 of BNSS Act.

(3.) This is a case where the petitioner who is suspected to be dealing with cryptocurrency, the case is under investigation by the Cyber Crime Bureau of Cyberabad, Telangana, registered on 16/5/2023. The fifth respondent Bank has been instructed to freeze the account of the petitioner herein. The communication received by the Bank indicates that around Rs.2,48,835.00 is the suspected money involved in the subject matter of the crime under investigation. Meticulously, in reference to the instructions received from National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and the notice from the Telugana Cyber Crime Bureau, the fifth respondent has freezed the account.