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The accounts were frozen by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2020 following the FIR registered in actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case that year.
A Mumbai special court has allowed the unfreezing of four bank accounts linked to actress Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and mother Sandhya.
The court said that the NCB had not complied with Section 68F of the NDPS Act within the required period.
The accounts were frozen by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2020 following the FIR registered in actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case that year.
While some of her accounts were defreezed in 2021, the family filed fresh applications through advocates Ayaz Khan and Zehra Charania to release funds in ICICI, Axis, and Kotak banks.
These applications specifically sought the defreezing of accounts that were mostly held jointly by various members of the family.
According to the report by NCB, the applicants contend that the NCB had not followed provisions of Section 68F of the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act and thus the freezing of bank accounts was illegal.
It further read: Section 68F of the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act, lays down the procedure while empowering authorised officers to seize or freeze properties that are believed to be illegally acquired through drug trafficking.
Sub-section (2) of Section 68F is designed to prevent the indefinite freezing of assets without independent oversight. It mandates that any order of seizure or freezing issued by an investigating officer must be reviewed and confirmed by a Competent Authority.
Advocate Ayaz Khan, appearing for Rhea Chakraborty and Sandhya Chakraborty, mentioned that in the case of the four bank accounts of Chakraborty family, the same was not done.