A Mumbai court recently allowed a petition by actor Rhea Chakraborty seeking the defreezing of her bank accounts which had been frozen by the Narcotics Control Bureau after she had been booked in the drug case probed in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
The single-judge bench of NDPS Special Judge D.B. Mane observed,
“There is no strong objection from the respondent/ Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) side to defreeze the said accounts. In such circumstances, the applicant/accused is entitled for defreezing the said bank accounts & FDs subject to conditions.”
This material on record establishes that the saving accounts & FDs maintained by the applicant/accused in the HDFC Bank have been rendered frozen by the respondent/NCB.
The court noted,
“From the reply of the Investigating Officer, it appears that there is no strong objection from the respondent side for defreezing the bank accounts & FDs of the applicant/accused. There is no contention from the respondent side about taking any action under section 68-F of the NDPS Act, 1985.”
In another application by the actor seeking possession of her laptop and phone, the bench ordered to return the MacBook Pro & silver colour Apple iPhone upon furnishing indemnity bond for Rs 1 lakh.
Satish Maneshinde, advocate appearing for Chakraborty, submitted that due to the freezing of the bank accounts and FDs of the applicant/accused, it is causing great prejudice to her. It is further submitted that the matter will take its own time for disposal and it is not necessary to freeze the bank accounts & FDs of the applicant/accused for uncertain period.
The NCB’s Special Public Prosecutor contended that financial investigation in the case is going on and it is yet not completed. If, the accounts are defreezed, then it will hamper the investigation. It is further contended that if, the bank accounts are defreezed then, there is high possibility of involving the said amount in drug mafia and drug related business, and urged for rejecting the present application.
The applicant/accused contends that she is an actor/model by profession. She was arrested on September 8, 2020 and the Bombay High Court has enlarged her on bail. It is further contended that the respondent/NCB froze the applicant’s/accused bank accounts & FDs by notice dated September 16, 2020 without reason and it is causing grave injustice & prejudice to the applicant/accused.
It was further contented that respondent/NCB have not taken any action under Section 68-F of the NDPS Act within the period of 30 days as required by law. The operation of said bank account is required for making the payment of salaries of the employees of the applicant/accused and for fulfilling of the various tax liabilities including GST payments etc. The applicant/accused supports her own lifestyle from the amount in the bank accounts. Her brother is also dependent upon her. Her bank accounts have been frozen for 10 months and it is causing prejudice to her, so, the applicant/accused prayed for defreezing her bank accounts and FDs.