KARTIK YOZESHWAR CHATUR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The common question that requires answer in these petitions is, whether an Investigating Agency has power to debit freeze an account under Sec. 106 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) ?

(2.) There is no dispute that in all these petitions, the accounts of the petitioners have been debit freezed under Sec. 106 of the BNSS. The reason why the accounts are debit freezed is that there occurred some cyber fraud, and that, part of amount of the alleged fraud has been credited to the accounts of the respective petitioners.

(3.) We have, accordingly, heard the Counsels for both sides, and have gone through the record to find that in some cases, the Investigating Agency has issued a communication to the Bank to debit freeze the accounts of the respective petitioners, however, in many cases, even such communication is not issued to the Bank, at least, the communication is not placed before us by the concerned Bank. It is, thus, a mystery as to how the Bank chose to debit freeze the accounts of their own.