Madras High Court refuses to order defreezing of bank account held by cryptocurrency trader

The Madras Excessive Court docket has refused to order defreezing of a Chennai-based checking account of a web-based dealer of crypto foreign money who ended up getting mired in a number of cyber crime complaints lodged with the police in Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat and New Delhi.

Justice P. Velmurugan dismissed the petition filed by B. Kalyan, a software program engineer now working in Bengaluru, after advocate Chevanan Mohan, representing HDFC Financial institution, informed the court docket that the account was frozen following requests obtained from 5 completely different States.

Observing that he was not inclined to challenge any path in a case involving the police departments outdoors the jurisdiction of the Madras Excessive Court docket, the decide mentioned, the petitioner would, nonetheless, be at liberty to work out his treatment within the method recognized to legislation.

In his affidavit, the petitioner acknowledged that he had obtained a private mortgage for ₹35 lakh from HDFC Financial institution and one other ₹24.91 lakh from Axis Financial institution and bought 67,873 crypto cash on cost of ₹60 lakh from a number one digital belongings firm in 2023 and bought them by way of a web-based platform.

Nevertheless, abruptly, he was shocked to search out his wage account having been frozen by HDFC financial institution on the request of the police departments from numerous States. Therefore, he had rushed to the court docket stating that he was not concerned in any wrongdoing and therefore freezing of his account was unjustifiable.

On his half, Central Authorities Standing Counsel L.J. Vengatesh informed the court docket that the Union Ministry of Dwelling Affairs (MHA) had established Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) to offer a framework and eco system for the legislation enforcement businesses to cope with cybercrime in a coordinated and complete method.

I4C had, in flip, created a centralised on-line platform named Nationwide Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) for lodging monetary fraud complaints and had additionally launched a nationwide toll free helpline quantity 1930 by way of which cybercrime complaints could possibly be reported with out the necessity to go to a police station.

Stating that the involvement of I4C ends with coordination, the counsel mentioned, that since ‘police’ was a State topic, it was the legislation enforcement businesses within the respective States which conduct preliminary inquiry into the complaints and challenge notices to the banks for marking a lien over the belongings, if vital.

“Neither the MHA nor I4C has any intervention or administrative management over the marking of lien or freezing of financial institution accounts. The cops train such powers accessible underneath the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and so they have been suggested to train the ability with due care and warning,” he mentioned.