Freezing of bank accounts has become a significant cyber security problem in modern India that has serious constitutional and legal concerns. This is an empirical study of the legal system in place to handle account freezing when it comes to cyber fraud, and it explores the conflict between crime prevention and protection of basic rights. One of the worst administrative measures influencing a person and his/her liberty and economic rights is the freezing of bank accounts. When a bank account is frozen, the account holder is deprived of immediate access to funds that could be necessary to sustain themselves daily, in the business and in their basic livelihood.

Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution of India offer great protection to property and economic rights, which the Supreme Court has widely applied to incorporate the right to livelihood. Article 300A states that no individual shall be deprived of his property except through law. The freezing of bank accounts may involve implication of both Article 300A property protections and Article 21 life and liberty guarantees.

Conceptual framework of cyber fraud and financial freezing

Cyber fraud is one of the types of cyber crimes that use digital technologies and computer networks to defraud victims and steal financial resources. The freezing of bank accounts in the cyber fraud scenario serves several functions: to preserve the evidence, to ensure that the proceeds of crime are not dissipated, to facilitate the compensation of the victims and to deter the crime. Nevertheless, these are valid ends which should be differentiated with the methods used to attain them.

The Section 102 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has enabled police officers to seize property that is suspected to be stolen or related to a crime, but the clause does not specifically empower them to freeze bank accounts. In reality,........

© Greater Kashmir