Police-Directed Freezing of Entire Bank Accounts Beyond the Disputed Sum Is Disproportionate: Rajasthan High Court

The petitioners, described in the order as film professionals, entered into an arrangement with the complainant to produce several films through an LLP (para 2). The complainant alleged that the accused siphoned off about ₹30 crores of the film funds through inflated and fake vendor bills, and FIR No. 213/2025 was registered at P.S. Bhupalpura, Udaipur, for cheating, criminal breach of trust and conspiracy; the petitioners were arrested (paras 2, 4). On the Investigating Officer's communication, HDFC Bank and IDFC First Bank froze and then blocked their savings accounts, including accounts not directly connected with the alleged transactions (paras 1-2). The petitioners said the amounts received were legitimate, accounted professional fees (para 2.1).

The Court accepted that the statutory framework lets an investigating agency ask a bank to freeze an account during investigation and intimate the jurisdictional Court forthwith, but held that the power is not unfettered: it is an extraordinary measure to be invoked sparingly, with due circumspection, and never mechanically (para 5.1). A freeze cannot continue indefinitely without telling the account holder the reasons, the allegations, its extent and its duration; otherwise it offends natural justice and is manifestly arbitrary (para 5.1). Freezing without cogent reasons or even a prima facie nexus with a cognizable offence intrudes on Article 21, which includes livelihood, dignity and economic freedom, and on Article 19(1)(g); relying on Maneka Gandhi, the Court required recorded reasons showing a direct nexus (para 5.2). Here only a quantified amount was under investigation, yet a blanket direction froze the accounts in their entirety (paras 5-6). The petitioners could not meet household expenses, pay salaries or service loans (para 6). A bank account, the Court said, is "the very bloodstream" of a person's economic existence (para 7), and a balanced, proportionate approach was needed (para 8).