A Relief to the Bank Customers: Only a Specific Amount Would be Frozen
“A sense of relief has been provided to the banks’ customers by the Rajasthan Police Headquarters by not completely freezing funds during cyberattack cases.”
Bank accounts shouldn’t be completely stopped while financial disputes and internet scams are being investigated, according to a directive from the Rajasthan police headquarters.
Good Steps
| ● The new guidelines instruct that only the specific amount under dispute may be held, and even that requires written approval from the district SP.
● Account holders must be allowed to continue using the rest of their funds freely. ● The instructions were sent to all police commissioners, range IGs, DIGs, and district SPs following directions from the Rajasthan High Court’s Jaipur bench. |
The goal of the action is to avoid the pain that comes with freezing whole accounts, especially in legal disputes involving money.
The circular further emphasizes that police must notify the Income Tax Department of any cash transactions totaling Rs 2 lakh or more, particularly in real estate transactions or contracts.
Kunal Haver, the joint director of income tax and the designated nodal officer in Jaipur, must receive these in the format specified.
When there is no obvious criminal guilt in a purely civil issue, police have been expressly instructed not to file a formal complaint.
No arrest or document seizure may be conducted without the District SP’s prior written consent if both civil and criminal features are present and a formal complaint has previously been filed.
Under Section 173(3)(i) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, a preliminary investigation must be finished within 14 days if the alleged offense entails a term of at least three years and up to seven years and no obvious cognizable offense is immediately apparent.
The results of this investigation will determine whether to submit a formal complaint.
Before filing formal complaints in unclear cases, the DGP’s office has also urged all officers to adhere to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Lalita Kumari v. State of Uttar Pradesh case.
These new guidelines aim to protect people’s legal and financial rights from capricious police actions and to reduce the abuse of criminal law in civil cases.
According to yet another direction, the PHQ has also sent the superintendent of police in question information about suspicious bank accounts so that they can thoroughly investigate the transactions made using these accounts.
Sources
| Sources said that many of these accounts are under the radar for their use as mule accounts in cyber fraud cases. A cybersecurity campaign is being run until June 25. |
Senior Police Officer
| “Under the campaign, one of the focus areas is to identify suspicious transactions in bank accounts, which are flagged through the Samanvaya portal—a Ministry of Home Affairs initiative. These accounts are suspected to have been used for laundering money stolen in cyber frauds,” said a senior police officer.
He added that the district SPs have been asked to probe these bank accounts.
Hundreds of such accounts are being monitored in each district. For example, in Bikaner, over 550 bank accounts are currently under the radar. |
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Suraj Koli is a content specialist in technical writing about cybersecurity & information security. He has written many amazing articles related to cybersecurity concepts, with the latest trends in cyber awareness and ethical hacking. Find out more about “Him.”
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