Mumbai: In a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court has held that probe agencies can not `debit freeze’ a bank account allegedly involved in cyber fraud transactions under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

A probe agency can put the disputed amount on lien, but cannot freeze the entire account, said a bench of Justices Anil Pansare and Raj Wakode at Nagpur in a judgment passed on Thursday.

When a lien is put on an amount, only that particular amount can not be accessed, but the account can remain operational. Often in cyber frauds, a bank account is used for rerouting the proceeds without the account holder being aware of the transactions.

The order came on seven petitions filed by persons whose bank accounts were debit freezed under section 106 of the BNSS, as proceeds

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