A police notice asked the bank to hold Rs 2,253. The bank froze everything. Axis Bank must now unfreeze entire account of a small businessman, the Calcutta High Court has directed, calling the freeze unjustified.
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Kolkata: Ordering Axis Bank to immediately unfreeze the entire account of a small retail businessman, the Calcutta High Court has allowed the bank to keep a lien only on the disputed Rs 2,253 that a cyber crime police notice had asked it to hold [Sohel Molla v. State of West Bengal and Others].
Justice Rishad Medora allowed the writ petition, observing that the direction to freeze the whole account appeared to be without any justification.
What the bank must do now
The operative direction reads:
The respondent no.3, being Axis Bank Limited, is directed to immediately de-freeze the petitioner’s said Bank Account … However, the Bank must continue to mark as a ‘lien’ the aforesaid transaction amounting to Rs.2,253/-.
Until the investigating authority passes further orders, the bank may not permit withdrawal of the lien-marked amount. Copies of the order are to go to the Tamil Nadu police by email and speed post.
From a Tamil Nadu notice to a frozen account
The petitioner trades as Rohan Retail and banks with Axis Bank’s Dalhousie Branch in Kolkata. On May 8, 2025, the Inspector of Police, Cyber Crime Wing, Central Branch, Tambaram Commissionerate, Tamil Nadu, sent the bank a notice under Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. It sought a lien mark on Rs 2,253 alone, said to relate to a disputed transaction of Rs 39,899 dated August 22, 2024.
Instead of marking that amount, the bank froze the petitioner’s whole account, and he moved the High Court. The investigating officer neither responded to the writ petition nor appeared, which the Court noted weakened any claim that a total freeze was needed. The allegations behind the disputed transaction have not been tested, and the Court has made no finding on them.
The Court’s reasoning
Set against the drastic step of freezing an entire account, the disputed sum struck the Court as insignificant. Of the freeze, it said:
Such direction appears to be without any justification whatsoever.
Why the order matters
The order speaks to a concern now common in cyber crime investigations: a police notice that seeks to hold a small, specific sum, and a bank that freezes the whole account in response. The Court has treated the scope of the notice as the limit of what a bank can do.
By separating the disputed amount from the rest of the account, the High Court balanced the investigating agency’s interest in securing the sum against the account holder’s livelihood.
Case Title: Sohel Molla v. State of West Bengal and Others [WPA 24459 of 2025]
Bench: Justice Rishad Medora, Calcutta High Court
Date of Order: September 30, 2026
Appearances: Debapriya Majumder for the petitioner; Madhu Jana, Jr. Govt. Adv., and Vinayak Chaubey for the State; Debtanay Banerjee for Axis Bank; D.K. Kundu, Arun Basu and Aditi Biswas for the RBI.