One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: A notice from a cyber crime police station about money that passed through your bank account is the start of an inquiry, not a finding against you. Appear on the date you are given, take a copy of the complaint, and never sign a statement you have not read. The freeze on the account and the notice are two separate problems, and they are solved separately.
The message from the bank comes first
It usually begins at a payment counter. The UPI transaction fails, or the salary credit does not land, and the branch has one line ready: the account is on hold at the request of an investigating agency. No prior warning, no letter to the address on file.
Then the notice turns up. Sometimes it is a sealed cover handed across a counter at a police station. Sometimes it is a scanned PDF forwarded on WhatsApp from a number nobody recognises, asking for a reply the same evening. There is a date at the bottom, a case number, and a section that means nothing to the person reading it. The envelope is opened, put down, and often left alone for a week.
By the time a call comes to this chamber, the date is four days away and the account has been frozen for three weeks. What follows is drawn from one such matter, with the parties, the police station and every transaction detail removed. Bear in mind that we have the account holder's version alone at that stage. The complainant, the bank and the investigating officer each have their own, and the three will not match.
Key facts at a glance
- The freeze is done by the bank on a request from the police, usually routed through the cyber crime reporting system. It is not a court order.
- The notice is usually under Section 35 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 — a direction to appear. Where documents are wanted, the summons comes under Section 94 BNSS.
- Ignoring it does not make it disappear. Non-appearance is exactly the circumstance that gets used to justify an arrest.
- You are not obliged to sign a statement. Article 20(3) of the Constitution protects a person from being compelled to be a witness against themselves.
- The balance in the account is not confiscated automatically. Getting it back needs either the investigating officer's clearance or an order of the jurisdictional magistrate.
- The sections that normally appear are Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 read with Section 318(4), sometimes Section 61 for criminal conspiracy, and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Why the police
Why the police freeze the whole account, not just the amount in dispute
The freeze is not aimed at your money. It is aimed at a channel. When a complaint of online fraud comes in — someone paid for a machine that never arrived, or a "customer care" number talked them into a transfer — the money is traced hop by hop through the banking system. Victim's account to one account, minutes later to a second, minutes after that to a