Revant Sinha, Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai
ABSTRACT
The recent times have seen the widespread increase in the white-collar crimes and many types of economic offenses and have posed a significant threat to India’s economic welfare. In the light of these offenses has implemented policies to counter-balance these investigation authorities, including the police where they have provided certain powers to prosecute complex financial transactions.
It is also seen that there has been a rise of misuse of power by the authorities, which has resulted in adverse consequences for both the innocent parties and accused. One of the most concerned issues faced by individuals is the freezing of the banks of accounts by the investigating authorities. These actions are done mostly on the basis of presumption or allegations of the accused being in the possession of the tainted funds. This practice can impact the operations of a business and lead to significant difficulties to the party that is affected or accused.
There are a lot of procedural safeguards related to the protection of the accused under the CRPC and PMLA provisions which are needed to be followed by the authorities in relation to the Freezing of the accounts by the authorities.
The project delves into the procedural safeguards provided by the Statutes and legal stance on the aforementioned issue, where it aims to elucidate the complexities which are regarding the freezing of the bank accounts during the course of investigation by the authorities.
The project also looks in the aspect of reason to believe in the PMLA and the discretion which the authorities have before the freezing of the accounts and the adverse effects it has on the people whose accounts have been frozen.
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