Allahabad HC for solution to cybercrime victims facing bank a/c freezes

A division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi recently observed that there has to be a mechanism to resolve such cases

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has asked the Centre to address cases where citizens become victims of cybercriminals and their accounts remain frozen indefinitely.

The court was dealing with a petition filed by a builder whose bank accounts were frozen after his son’s Aadhaar details were misused allegedly by cybercriminals. (For Representation)

Dealing with a petition filed by a builder whose bank accounts were frozen after his son’s Aadhaar details were allegedly misused by cybercriminals, the court impleaded the Union of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, as a respondent.

A division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi while hearing the plea filed by the builder recently observed that there has to be a mechanism to resolve such cases.

“...we would like the concerned Ministries/ Departments to come-up with a solution to such problems where gullible citizens are caught in a trap by the cyber criminals and their details are used by the latter for committing crimes and the accounts remain freezed indefinitely,” the bench said.

The petitioner claimed that his son had mistakenly clicked on a link provided by a cybercriminal and also shared his Aadhaar card details and other information. According to the petitioner, the cybercriminal misused these details to commit further cybercrimes and dupe other citizens of money through bank transactions.

Due to the lapse on the part of his son, all the accounts of the petitioners have been frozen, with the result that he is not able to do business. The petitioner himself had lodged an FIR in 2020, he said.

He had earlier approached the high court seeking the de-freezing of one of his savings bank accounts. In those proceedings, the court had permitted him to move an appropriate application before UIDAI for issuance of a new Aadhaar card and cancellation of the old one.

Thereafter, fresh biometrics were taken in connection with the petitioner’s Aadhaar card and his mobile number was also changed. However, this did not resolve his difficulty, as his existing bank accounts continued to remain frozen.

The counsel for the opposite parties said the bank contacted the cyber cell and as it received no instructions from the cyber cell, the freezing was discontinued.

In view of the above, the court directed the two concerned banks to contact the relevant cyber cell personnel to ascertain the status of the pending criminal cases and take action in accordance with the law. It further directed the banks to “make all endeavour to resolve the matter”.

The court also directed the petitioner to implead the state of Uttar Pradesh through the additional chief secretary/principal secretary (home), the commissioner of police, Lucknow, and the station house officer of Vibhuti Khand police station as parties to the proceedings.

Appearing for the Union of India, assistant solicitor general SB Pandey accepted notice on its behalf and was directed to seek instructions and file an affidavit. The matter has been directed to be listed after four weeks as a fresh matter.