IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED: 11/10/2002
CORAM
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A. KULASEKARAN
Crl.OP No. 24398 of 2002
R. Chandrasekar ... Petitioner
-Vs-
1. Inspector of Police
Fair Land Police Station
Salem
2. The Dy. Superintendent of Police
C.B. C.I.D.
Coimbatore ... Respondents
Petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. to direct the 2nd respondent to
revoke the instructions given to the bank authorities for freezing the account
of the petitioner herein and his firms and to permit the petitioner to operate
the accounts of the petitioner.
For Petitioner : Mr. Sudanthiram
For Respondents: Mr.A.N.Thambidurai, Government
Advocate (Crl.side)
:ORDER
The petitioner has filed the above petition seeking for a direction to
direct the 2nd respondent to revoke the instructions given to the bank
authorities for freezing the account of the petitioner herein and his firms
and to permit the petitioner to operate the accounts of the petitioner.
2. The petitioner/third party has filed this petition against the
order of the 2nd respondent directing the banks to freeze his four accounts in
connection with crime No. 32 of 2002 on the file of the Inspector of Police,
Fair land police station, Salem.
3. The above petition came up before me for admission on
04-10-2002 and on that day, on behalf of the prosecution, Mr. Thambidurai,
learned government advocate has taken notice and the matter was posted today.
I heard both sides.
4. Mr. Suthanthiram, learned counsel appearing for the
petitioner submitted as follows;-
The petitioner is a resident of salem and carrying on business of
mining, purchase, sales and conversion of minerals and chemicals along with
his family members in the name of Abirami minerals and chemicals, Sekar Mines,
Sekar sales syndicate. The said firms are maintaining current account in
State Bank of India Nos. 01050 070010, 01050 0500 25 and 01050 070480
respectively and also personal savings bank account No. 100 in Allahabad
bank, Salem. The said bank accounts were frozen by the banks on the
instructions given by the 2nd respondent herein. The petitioner is not served
with the said prohibitory order, but the bankers have sent intimation to the
petitioner. The respondent/police said to have given such instructions
allegedly on the basis of the confession statement of one Prabhakaran, who is
facing a case for the offences under Sections 465, 468, 471, 420 and 120 of
IPC. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, the petitioner is
not at all involved in the said case nor he has anything to do with the
business of the said Prabhakaran; that the petitioner’s firms are maintaining
reputation and the transaction in respect of the said four bank accounts are
covered by cheques and drafts. The learned counsel also produced statement of
accounts of three current accounts and also pass book of the savings bank
account to justify it and prayed for revoking the prohibitory order issued by
the police to the banks.
5. Mr. Thambidurai, learned government advocate appearing for
the respondents, on instructions from the police vehemently opposed the
petition and submitted that the said Prabhakaran, Managing Director of
Business Solutions has collected deposits from various persons, but he failed
to repay the same; that a case in Crime no. 32 of 2002 for the offences under
Sections 465, 468, 471, 420 and 120 of IPC was filed against him and other
accused; that in the confession statement made by the said Prabhakaran before
the respondents/police he has stated that the petitioner’s father has received
a sum of Rs. 5 lakhs in one occasion and some other amounts in two occasions
and that the said amount was suspected to have been passed on to the
petitioner herein. The learned Government advocate also produced the
confession statement and prayed for dismissal of the petition.
6. I have carefully gone through the records placed before me
namely statement of bank accounts and confession statement of Prabhakaran.
The said documents do not support the case of the prosecution to prohibit the
operation of the bank account.
7. No doubt, under Section 102 of Cr.p.c., a police officer in
the course of investigation can prohibit the operation of the bank account, as
the bank account is property provided it is found under circumstances creating
suspicion that an offence has been committed. Section 102 of Cr.P.C. runs as
follows;-
‘102. Power of police officer to seize certain property;-
1. Any police officer may seize any property which may be alleged or
suspected to have been stolen, or which may be found under circumstances which
create suspicion of the commission of any offence.
2. Such police officer, if subordinate to the officer in charge
of a police station, shall forthwith report the seizure to that officer.
3. Every police officer acting under sub-section [1] shall
forthwith report the seizure to the Magistrate having jurisdiction and where
the property seized is such that it cannot be conveniently transported to the
court, he may give custody thereof to any person on his executing a bond
undertaking to produce the property before the Court as and when required and
to give effect to the further orders of the Court as to the disposal of the
same.’
8. Section 102 empowers a police officer to seize any property,
which may be alleged or suspected to have been stolen or which can be found
under circumstance which create suspicion of commission of any offence. In
other words, when a property not found under circumstance creating suspicion
of an offence having been committed, Section 102 of Cr.P.C. does not apply.
9. In the case on hand, the position is different. Here it is
not the discovery of property that has created suspicion that an offence has
been committed. There are no circumstances attendant upon the bank account or
its operation that have led the police to suspect that some offence has been
committed somewhere. The allegation of the prosecution is that the bank
account in this case is a sequel to the discovery of the commission of the
offence. This is not sufficient to attract Section 102 of Cr.P.C. as it
cannot be since that the bank account has been traced or discovered in
circumstance which have made the police aware of the commission of an offence.
10. I do not find any justification in passing prohibitory order
by the respondents/police from operating the bank account. The respondents
attempted to establish that some funds are suspected to be transferred by the
petitioner’s father to the petitioner’s bank account, which is not sufficient
to attract Section 102 of Cr.P.C. However, this averment can be verified at
any time by a comparison between the accounts as the entries in the accounts
are always available as such no purpose seems to be served by restricting the
operation of the bank account. Indeed, the statements of account produced by
the petitioner justify prima facie that are covered by cheques and drafts,
besides meagre amounts are available in the accounts. No whispering about the
petitioner in the confession statement by Prabhakaran to the police.
11. The respondents/police has also not followed the mandatory
requirements of Section 102 of Cr.P.C. The police officer shall forthwith
report the same to the Magistrate and also give notice to the petitioner and
allow him to operate the bank account subject to executing a bond undertaking
to produce the amount in court, as and when required as contemplated in clause
3 of Section 102, but not given any such notice. Even the copy of prohibitory
order was not served to the petitioner.
For the reasons mentioned above, I revoke the prohibitory order issued
by the 2nd respondent preventing the petitioner from operating the bank
account in question. The petition is therefore allowed as prayed for. No
costs.
11-10-2002
rsh
Index : Yes
Internet : Yes
To
1. The Dy. Superintendent of Police
C.B. C.I.D.
Coimbatore
2. The Inspector of Police
Fair Land Police Station
Salem
3. The Public Prosecutor
High Court
Madras – 600 104