How to Unfreeze bank account - Detailed version

[Bitcoin Smith]

How I Got My Frozen Bank Account Unfreezed

So, I’ve seen a lot of people struggling to unfreeze their bank accounts after cyber crime complaints, especially those dealing with P2P transactions or random small credits. I went through this nightmare twice and learned exactly how to deal with it.

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First Account Freeze – ICICI Bank  
Eight months ago, my ICICI Bank account was debit-frozen because I received a ₹175 credit in Layer 3. The bank got an email from the cyber police station, and the entire account was locked. I had ₹18.6 lakhs stuck inside.

I went to the bank, and they gave me the standard "We can’t do anything" response. They handed me a letter saying, "Cyber police told us to freeze it." When I asked for a copy of the email or notice, they refused.

The investigating officer wouldn’t pick up calls or respond to emails. And I wasn’t going to travel 2,200 km just for this.

So, I tagged the district and state police handles on Twitter (X). Within a day, the officer called me but said I had to come in person.

Now, personally, I don’t like dealing with cops. I knew they’d talk nonsense, and if I responded, things could escalate. So, I refused to go.

Since the cops weren’t helping, I went straight to the High Court and filed a Writ Petition.

The Court Ruled:  
✅ Only the disputed amount can be frozen, not the entire account.  
✅ Freezing my entire account was illegal (based on a similar case in the Madras High Court - W.P. No. 25631 of 2024).  
✅ ICICI Bank was ordered to hold just ₹175 and unfreeze the rest.

After eight months, I finally got my money back.

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Second Account Freeze – Federal Bank  
Right after I got my ICICI account back, my Federal Bank account was frozen due to another random small Layer 4 credit.

This time, I didn’t even recognize the transaction, but apparently, some complaint was filed somewhere, and without any warning, my entire account got debit-frozen.

Now I knew what to do.

Step 1: Checking Why My Account Was Frozen  
I asked the bank:

📌 Did the police send the notice under Section 91 CrPC or Section 102 CrPC?  

Here’s why this matters:  
- Section 91 CrPC: Police can’t freeze your account; they can only ask for details.  
- Section 102 CrPC: Police can order freeze, but they must inform a magistrate within 2 months.

In my case, the police never informed the magistrate, making the freeze illegal.

I told the bank:  
- This freeze doesn’t comply with the law.  
- As per the High Court ruling, they can only freeze the disputed amount, not my entire account.  
- They never informed me or provided a copy of the freeze notice.

The bank still refused to unfreeze it.

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Step 2: Pressuring the Bank  
I made it clear:  
- I would file a High Court case against them.  
- They were violating High Court guidelines.  
- If I took them to consumer court, it would get ugly.

Suddenly, the bank manager changed his tone and asked for proof that I wasn’t involved in any fraud.

✅ I instantly filed an RTI (costs ₹10) asking:  
"Is there any case registered against me in this district or state?"  

💡 The response came back NO, my name wasn’t even in any complaint.

After showing the RTI response and threatening legal action, the bank finally unfroze my account. They asked for an application requesting to unfreeze with the RTI reply attached.

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What You Can Do If This Happens to You:  

✔️ Ask the bank:  
- Did the freeze happen under Section 91 CrPC or Section 102 CrPC?  
- Did the police inform a magistrate within 2 months? If not, the freeze is illegal.  

✔️ Demand proof from the bank:  
- Ask for a copy of the email or letter from cyber crime.  
- Ask for a confirmation letter about the freeze.  
- Ask why they froze the entire account instead of just the disputed amount.  

✔️ File an RTI (₹10) asking:  
"Is there any case against me in this district or state related to that freeze?"  

📌 If the answer is NO, use this as proof to unfreeze your account.  

✔️ Put pressure on the bank:  
- Tell them the freeze is illegal if they didn’t follow CrPC rules.  
- Mention the Madras High Court judgment (W.P. No. 25631 of 2024).  
- Warn them about filing a case in High Court and Consumer Court.  

✔️ If the police or bank ignores you:  
- Post on Twitter (X) – this will force them to act fast.  
- If nothing works, file a Writ Petition in the High Court.  

📌 Courts have already ruled that banks can’t freeze entire accounts illegally.  

Source
I am not the author I just formatted it and posting it here, original source included.

And I did some research too and yeah shared information seems correct that banks or cyber crime can't freeze the entire bank account for layer 3 and above, they can only hold the disputed amount and the remaining funds should be accessible as per the Madras High court ruling which was made against RBI.

[TheUltraElite]

Thanks for sharing this, there might be more to the stories but we have to assume the author here is speaking the truth.

With crypto companies setting up shop in India we might see less of these "extortion" type freezes and things will get better. Till then another option is not to involve the banking system at all, meaning keeping fiat and crypto completely separate but I guess for many of my fellow users this is though to do.

[pawanjain]

✅ I instantly filed an RTI (costs ₹10) asking:  
"Is there any case registered against me in this district or state?"  

💡 The response came back NO, my name wasn’t even in any complaint.

After showing the RTI response and threatening legal action, the bank finally unfroze my account. They asked for an application requesting to unfreeze with the RTI reply attached.

That's a good initial guide to help people whose bank account got frozen to give them a go ahead.
I would like to know more on the RTI response thing. Could you add more about what is RTI and the steps on how to get the response from RTI.
This would make the entire guide more comprehensive and detailed.

[libert19]

My DBS bank account was debit freezed years back when RBI ban was in effect and I traded on some P2P exchange, it was only freeze on that fraud transferred amount and nothing else (it was about 10K INR), account is still usable.

I didn't know the process on how to get it unfreezed, anyhow I assumed if I bothered with it the expenses would be more than amount freezed so I bitten the bullet deliberately.

[JSRAW]

Lol arey bhai, you had me haha. At first I thought you were sharing some personal experience. Then saw "Second instance" and "Reddit source". It Would have been better if you included "Quote".

Our Babus are hardcore sadists and they find new ways to harass common people. Imagine getting such penalties for a few bucks and on the other hand powerful people get away with almost anything.

[pawanjain]

My DBS bank account was debit freezed years back when RBI ban was in effect and I traded on some P2P exchange, it was only freeze on that fraud transferred amount and nothing else (it was about 10K INR), account is still usable.

I didn't know the process on how to get it unfreezed, anyhow I assumed if I bothered with it the expenses would be more than amount freezed so I bitten the bullet deliberately.

Then what happened with the 10k ? Is it still frozen in your account or the bank debited it for no reason ?
Or have they released the amount and is so then how much time did they take to release the funds ?

Lol arey bhai, you had me haha. At first I thought you were sharing some personal experience. Then saw "Second instance" and "Reddit source". It Would have been better if you included "Quote".

Even I had the same feeling while reading the post. At first I was like, wow, what a man Bitcoin Smith is and then I was like oh no it was someone else.

[Bitcoin Smith]

Till then another option is not to involve the banking system at all, meaning keeping fiat and crypto completely separate but I guess for many of my fellow users this is though to do.

Most of the crypto users treat it as an investment, so they trade and try to cash out the profits which is where the problem begins since no exchange allows BTC/INR or any crypto-INR pair then the users has to go through p2p only. I guess exchanges should bring back INR pairs especially since they are FIU registered.

I would like to know more on the RTI response thing. Could you add more about what is RTI and the steps on how to get the response from RTI.
This would make the entire guide more comprehensive and detailed.

We can file RTI using Gov online portal : https://rtionline.gov.in and we need to select Department of Home affairs since police department comes under this ministry. But we can also seek help from Lawyer if needed to assist with getting an RTI.

My DBS bank account was debit freezed years back when RBI ban was in effect and I traded on some P2P exchange, it was only freeze on that fraud transferred amount and nothing else (it was about 10K INR), account is still usable.

I didn't know the process on how to get it unfreezed, anyhow I assumed if I bothered with it the expenses would be more than amount freezed so I bitten the bullet deliberately.

I guess your account got Lien not the debit freeze since you mentioned it is usable. In that case the amount can be accessed only when the investigation is over but it will take forever with out police hard working officials.

Lol arey bhai, you had me haha. At first I thought you were sharing some personal experience. Then saw "Second instance" and "Reddit source". It Would have been better if you included "Quote".

At first I used the quotes but doesn't look that good so I decided just go with source alone. I also thought about creating an actual guide using this reference instead of sharing the entire piece but the effort is too much for our ghosted Indian board.

[libert19]

My DBS bank account was debit freezed years back when RBI ban was in effect and I traded on some P2P exchange, it was only freeze on that fraud transferred amount and nothing else (it was about 10K INR), account is still usable.

I didn't know the process on how to get it unfreezed, anyhow I assumed if I bothered with it the expenses would be more than amount freezed so I bitten the bullet deliberately.

Then what happened with the 10k ? Is it still frozen in your account or the bank debited it for no reason ?
Or have they released the amount and is so then how much time did they take to release the funds ?

Yes, those 10k are still frozen in my account.

...I guess exchanges should bring back INR pairs especially since they are FIU registered.

Coinswitch does have INR pairs.

My DBS bank account was debit freezed years back when RBI ban was in effect and I traded on some P2P exchange, it was only freeze on that fraud transferred amount and nothing else (it was about 10K INR), account is still usable.

I didn't know the process on how to get it unfreezed, anyhow I assumed if I bothered with it the expenses would be more than amount freezed so I bitten the bullet deliberately.

I guess your account got Lien not the debit freeze since you mentioned it is usable. In that case the amount can be accessed only when the investigation is over but it will take forever with out police hard working officials.

Yes, it's lien, my bad.

[Bitcoin Smith]

Just a follow-up thought

Almost everyone who got the bank freeze or lien is another victim, who came into the contact with some untraceable scammer but do they deserve losing money for something they have never done?

Trading is not illegal but our incompetent police departments just being lazy and issue notices to freeze hundreds of bank accounts. And also lack of cyber laws let the scammers roam freely while the innocent victims just lose their money.

And this serves as a proof that people who think keeping their money in bank is safe is not true and the fun fact is bank can just take away our money just because someone from other end of the country assume we are part of a group.

[M47AK16]

This is a really helpful insight for a lot of people I'll say. I personally know a few who has spent good years in getting their accounts back which was really very frustrating as they had to almost shut all of their revenue streams. Many people ignore going to court but that actually is the best option as you get to speak their and once you've proven the truth then you don't have to worry about anything else.

Many native speakers as well might be interested in this topic not only from this forum but elsewhere. Forum has good visibility on google so I'd like to translate this topic to Hindi & would also be great if it could be translated into other native languages by volunteers.

[avikz]

Thanks for sharing this! The insights are really useful someone faces a similar situation. The banks in India are highly unethical and it's a pain to deal with the administrative officers due to their sky high ego and don't-care attitude. But I am sure the reference of the Madras High court case will be useful for many people.

Banking system in India needs serious overhaul. Banking lobby is the main bottleneck for cryptos to become legal in India. As long as they keep in opposing the crypto, it won't be classified as a legal tender.

[Bitcoin Smith]

This is a really helpful insight for a lot of people I'll say. I personally know a few who has spent good years in getting their accounts back which was really very frustrating as they had to almost shut all of their revenue streams. Many people ignore going to court but that actually is the best option as you get to speak their and once you've proven the truth then you don't have to worry about anything else.

But court is expensive, we need to hire lawyer and has to travel back and forth for number of times so it is only worth going to court if the amount on hold is more. But we can use this to convince the investigation officer who is dealing the case.

I'd like to translate this topic to Hindi

That would be really helpful.

And advance congratulation, you only lack activity to reach the next rank. Hope to see you in other discussions from our board too.

Thanks for sharing this! The insights are really useful someone faces a similar situation. The banks in India are highly unethical and it's a pain to deal with the administrative officers due to their sky high ego and don't-care attitude. But I am sure the reference of the Madras High court case will be useful for many people.

Banking system in India needs serious overhaul. Banking lobby is the main bottleneck for cryptos to become legal in India. As long as they keep in opposing the crypto, it won't be classified as a legal tender.

Bank freeze ha nothing to do with the bank administration, they simply follow what the cyber crime department ask them to do, so we need some changes in that laws that gives ultimate power to seize funds with no concrete evidence that the person involved in illegal activity apart from the funds transferred.

[JSRAW]

This is a really helpful insight for a lot of people I'll say. I personally know a few who has spent good years in getting their accounts back which was really very frustrating as they had to almost shut all of their revenue streams. Many people ignore going to court but that actually is the best option as you get to speak their and once you've proven the truth then you don't have to worry about anything else.

But court is expensive, we need to hire lawyer and has to travel back and forth for number of times so it is only worth going to court if the amount on hold is more. But we can use this to convince the investigation officer who is dealing the case.

Our justice system designed in such a way where Process is the punishment. That's why everyone takes a short cut and bribes are normal.

You can't even move your files in district court if you are not willing to grease few palms. Majority of disputes are solved outside due to this.

[Bitcoin Smith]

Our justice system designed in such a way where Process is the punishment. That's why everyone takes a short cut and bribes are normal.

You can't even move your files in district court if you are not willing to grease few palms. Majority of disputes are solved outside due to this.

Bribe exists in many countries too, but there's something special here, in other countries people have to offer bribe when they need to break the laws or something but only in our country we have to bribe the officials to do that what they are supposed to do.

No one seem to care about changing this culture and even if they do it is almost an impossible task.

[avikz]

Bank freeze ha nothing to do with the bank administration, they simply follow what the cyber crime department ask them to do, so we need some changes in that laws that gives ultimate power to seize funds with no concrete evidence that the person involved in illegal activity apart from the funds transferred.

Bank branches has nothing to do with the account freeze for sure. They just follow the order from cyber crime department.

However, bank administration has a lot to do with this. Indian banking lobby is the most unfriendly when it comes to crypto transactions. When I had opened my first current account for my business which has no relation with crypto, I had to sign a declaration that I don't deal in cryptos. It's a tactical move by the banking system to effectively discourage you from using cryptos. They have a very strong lobby.

[Bitcoin Smith]

When I had opened my first current account for my business which has no relation with crypto, I had to sign a declaration that I don't deal in cryptos. It's a tactical move by the banking system to effectively discourage you from using cryptos. They have a very strong lobby.

When did that happen? If it's after 2022 then it is against Indian government laws because trading crypto is still legal in our country and they are collecting tax and TDS on that. So if still any banks restricts user from using their accounts for crypto related transactions then they can be should be punished, right?

[M47AK16]

But court is expensive, we need to hire lawyer and has to travel back and forth for number of times so it is only worth going to court if the amount on hold is more. But we can use this to convince the investigation officer who is dealing the case.

Agreed, court can be expensive not because of the legal fees but because of under the table commissions. Even the investigating officers would demand money as here in India, bribe often gets the work done much faster.

And advance congratulation, you only lack activity to reach the next rank. Hope to see you in other discussions from our board too.

Thankyou so much. I would surely love to participate in other discussions in our local forum. I've been busy lately in office works but I'll be active here as soon as I get some freetime.

Our justice system designed in such a way where Process is the punishment. That's why everyone takes a short cut and bribes are normal.
You can't even move your files in district court if you are not willing to grease few palms. Majority of disputes are solved outside due to this.

Totally agreed.
I wonder when this corruption will stop. (Though, I don't think it can be stopped )