Mangaluru: A growing number of citizens are reportedly finding themselves trapped, as bank accounts are frozen without warning in the name of cybercrime investigations, said cybersecurity expert Ananth Prabhu G.For instance, Sathish, an employee of an MNC here, was left shocked when his bank account was marked as a lien on Feb 5. Sathish transferred Rs 20,000 on Feb 2 to a merchant’s QR code shared by his friend, who made purchases at a hardware shop. The next day, his friend returned the amount in cash. As Sathish had an EMI due on Feb 6, and, asked for the money to be transferred back into his account. To arrange this, his friend contacted his cousin, who in turn reached out to another person. One of them allegedly had links to a loan taken through a gaming app. This triggered suspicion, and the Kollam police identified him as a ‘Layer 5′ suspect in an alleged investment scam. The issue came to light only after his EMI payment bounced. Soon after, a case was also registered against him by the police in Jammu & Kashmir, and his account was frozen in March, he said. His ordeal worsened when his wife’s account was also flagged as suspicious ‘Layer 14′, due to transactions between them during her pregnancy. “For just Rs 20,000, I now have to travel to Kerala and J&K. There are language barriers, high travel costs, and I may lose workdays. I was planning to apply for a housing loan, I now fear this will affect my financial future,” Sathish told TOI.Across India, a troubling pattern is emerging where bank accounts of unsuspecting individuals are being frozen without adequate communication or accessible grievance redressal mechanisms, said Ananth Prabhu, who is a professor at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management here.In an open letter, Prabhu has urged MP Raghav Chadha to raise the matter and called upon Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Amit Shah to recognise the hardships faced by common people. If people are not directly involved, questioning can be conducted via video conferencing instead of requiring them to visit the police station. There is an urgent need for a uniform, citizen-centric mechanism to address such cases. He urged the govt to start an All India Cyber Police wing like NIA and ED.Lingaraju S, cyber security trainer, Karnataka state police, pointed out that the absence of clear inter-jurisdictional coordination is creating significant challenges. When a complaint is raised, for instance, involving Rs 50,000, ideally only that specific amount should be put on hold. However, in many cases, if a transaction is received from a suspicious account, the recipient’s entire account ends up being frozen. As a result, even ordinary citizens with no direct involvement can become victims, with their accounts marked as suspicious (lien) and subjected to debit freezes, he said.
