Forced to Work on Sundays Without Extra Pay: Your Rights

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 the need to protect the identity of the people involved, the names, the city and a few other identifying details below have been changed. The legal problem has not been softened, and nothing has been added to it.

He called on a Tuesday morning. His current account had gone dead the previous evening. A payment he was expecting had not come in, and when he tried to pay a supplier, the transfer failed. The bank's app said nothing useful. It was the branch manager who told him, almost apologetically, that there was a lien on the account and that he would have to speak to "the cyber cell". He asked which one. The manager did not know.

He runs a small business. The money he was worried about was ordinary trade money. What had happened, as far as we could piece it together, was this: somewhere else in the country a person had been cheated online, had complained, and the complaint had traced a sum of money into an account that had, at some point in the chain, been his. Nobody had accused him of anything. No FIR had reached him. No notice, no summons, no call. Just a lien.

I should say plainly that I have only his version. I have not seen the complaint, and the complainant has never been heard in this account. That gap matters, because the whole question — criminal case or honest receipt — turns on what he knew when the money arrived.

Why does a bank freeze an account in a cyber crime case?

Money stolen online moves fast. It is pushed through one account, then another, then a third, often within minutes. By the time a victim realises what happened, the original sum is several layers away. So when a complaint is filed — usually on the national cyber crime portal or the 1930 helpline — the police follow the trail and flag every account the money passed through. Banks are asked to hold the funds in place so the money can be traced and, if possible, returned to the person who lost it.

The freeze, in other words, is a preservation measure. It is not a finding that you did anything.

Freeze on the money, or on you?

These are two different things and people often mix them up. A debit freeze or lien on a specific amount means the bank will not let that sum leave the account, but you can still operate it. A total freeze shuts the account down — nothing in, nothing out. Which one you have decides how urgent your situation is. If it is a lien on a traced amount, you can keep trading while you sort it out. If it is a total freeze, your business stops that day.

Where you actually stand in the chain

Broadly, an account holder in this position falls into one of three categories, and they are treated very differently.

• You received the money in the ordinary course of business and had no reason to suspect it. You sold something, you supplied something, someone paid you. This is the most common situation and the most defensible.
• You allowed someone to use your account — for a commission, for a favour, because a friend asked. This is where criminal liability genuinely begins. Knowingly lending an account to route other people's money is not a paperwork problem.
• Your own account was compromised — your credentials were taken and the money moved without you. Here you are a victim twice over, and the police response is different.

The provisions that usually get cited

If the police do treat you as an accused rather than a witness, the sections are usually drawn from the cheating family in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — cheating, cheating by personation, and cheating with dishonest inducement of delivery of property — along with the offence of dishonestly receiving property knowing or having reason to believe it is stolen, which is Section 317 BNS. Criminal conspiracy is added where the prosecution alleges an agreement. On the information technology side, identity theft and cheating by personation using a computer resource appear under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Note the wording of Section 317 BNS. It requires knowledge, or reason to believe. An honest trader who took payment for goods and had no idea where the money came from is a long way from that. Whether the "reason to believe" exists is a question of fact, and it is the question everything will turn on.

What the bank can and cannot do by itself

A bank does not investigate. It acts on instructions from law enforcement. That matters practically: arguing with the branch is close to pointless, and shouting at the relationship manager will not move a lien. The instruction has to be withdrawn by the person who gave it.

What the account holder can actually do

This is the part people get wrong. They start with the court. You start with paper.

Step one: get the freeze identified in writing

Ask the bank, in writing, for the reason for the lien, the amount liened, the name of the police unit and the FIR or complaint number that flagged the account, and the contact details of the officer handling it. Banks are expected to tell a customer why an account has been marked, and most will once the request is in writing and addressed to the branch as well as the nodal officer. An oral answer at the counter is not enough. You will need this document later.

Step two: build the file before you speak to anyone

Have this ready before your first conversation with the investigating officer. A phone call without documents wastes the one opportunity you get to make a clean first impression.

• KYC records for the account and for the business
• Bank statement covering the period, so the incoming credit is visible alongside your normal transactions
• The invoice, purchase order, ledger entry or agreement behind the transaction, and any chats or emails with the payer
• Proof of what you supplied or delivered — transport documents, delivery confirmation, gate passes
• GST returns or income tax returns showing the payer as a customer, if the relationship is older
• A short chronology: one page, dated, in plain language, signed

Step three: approach the investigating officer

Send a written representation to the officer or unit that flagged the account, with the file above attached. Ask for the lien to be lifted, or for a no-objection letter to be issued to the bank. Keep the acknowledgement — the receipt stamp, the speed post receipt, the email trail. If the officer is in another state, this is done in writing and, if needed, through a lawyer appearing there. There is generally no requirement that you travel in person at this stage, and there are limits on requiring a person to attend a police station far from where they live; the exact position depends on the section under which you have been called, so check it before you buy a ticket.

Step four: if the police will not move

Sometimes they won't. The money is evidence, the investigation is open, and no one wants to release funds. At that point the options are court-facing:

• An application before the court dealing with the case, asking for the lien to be released — usually the magistrate where the FIR or complaint sits, though the practical route varies by state and by where the account is held.
• A petition to the High Court, which has inherent powers preserved under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, where there is no other adequate remedy.
• If you have been named as an accused, anticipatory bail under the BNSS is a separate and more urgent question, and it should not be treated as an afterthought to the freeze.
• If a notice of appearance has been issued to you, respond to it through counsel. Complying with such a notice is what protects you from arrest in the ordinary course, and ignoring it does the opposite.

One caution on evidence. Your bank statement and the transaction records are electronic records, and if you ever need to prove them in court, the certificate regime for electronic records under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 matters. Pull the certified copies from the bank properly now rather than reconstructing them later.

Key facts to hold on to

• A lien on your account is usually a tracing measure, not a charge against you.
• The bank cannot release it on its own — the police unit that flagged it has to.
• Debit freeze and total freeze are different, and the difference changes your urgency.
• Section 317 BNS requires knowledge or reason to believe; an honest trade receipt is not automatically an offence.
• Lending your account to someone else is where genuine criminal exposure begins.
• Get the freeze reason in writing before you argue about anything.
• Paperwork first, court second. Most liens are released at the police station.
• If you are named as an accused, bail is a separate and time-sensitive question.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to send us

If you want an assessment, send three things and nothing more to begin with:

• The freeze intimation, bank letter or written reply from the branch — whatever the bank has given you, or a screenshot of the message if that is all you have
• The bank statement page showing the credit that is in question, with its date and the name of the payer
• A two-line note: what you sold, supplied or did for that payment, and which police unit or state is behind the freeze

Send it through /contact-us or book a time at /book. If the papers show an honest receipt and no knowledge of the source, the work is a written representation to the investigating officer and a release request to the bank. If they show something else, you will be told that plainly, and where you stand on bail will be the first conversation rather than the last. An account freeze in a cyber crime case is often resolved at the police station level; where it is not, the escalation is to court, and the same file does both jobs.

This article is general information about Indian law as it stands, and is not legal advice on your own situation. Please have your documents read before acting on it.

Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India