The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the police do not have the power to attach immovable properties of an accused during the course of an investigation in a criminal case, PTI reported.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna held that Section 102 of the Code of Criminal Procedure does not give police the power to seize and attach immovable properties.

However, Section 102 confers upon the police the power to seize certain property, Bar and Bench reported. It said the provision states: “Any police officer, may seize any property which may be alleged or suspected to have been stolen, or which may be found under circumstances which create suspicion of the commission of any offence.”

Both Justices Gupta and Khanna wrote a separate but concurring judgement in the case.

The top court clarified that police do have the authority to freeze movable properties of an accused, LiveLaw reported.

An appeal was filed by the Maharashtra government against the judgement of a full bench of the Bombay High Court. The judgement held that the police do not have the power to attach property during investigation as it can lead to misuse of power.

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