Overview
- India’s special NDPS court in Mumbai, which issued orders Saturday, unfroze four bank accounts belonging to Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and their mother Sandhya.
- Judge U C Deshmukh held the NCB never obtained the 30‑day confirmation required by Section 68F of the NDPS Act, so the freeze had no legal effect.
- The court directed that the accounts be operated in line with Reserve Bank of India rules after lifting the restraint.
- The orders cover accounts at ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank and address the four remaining accounts that were still frozen since 2020.
- Prosecutors argued the freeze was justified by alleged links to a drug network, but the court confined its decision to the procedural defect, with the broader NCB case continuing even as the CBI closed the death probe in 2025 with a clean chit.