Sec 102 of Crpc Power of police officer to seize certain property.

102. Power of police officer to seize certain property.—(1) Any police officer may seize any property which may be :- 

a) alleged or suspected to have been stolen, or  

b) found under circumstances which create suspicion of the commission of any offence.

(2) Such police officer, if subordinate to the officer in charge of a police station, shall forthwith report the seizure to that officer.

(3) Every police officer acting under sub-section (1) shall forthwith report the seizure to the Magistrate having jurisdiction and where the property seized is such that it cannot be conveniently transported to the Court or where there is difficulty in securing proper accommodation for the custody of such property, or where the continued retention of the property in police custody may not be considered necessary for the purpose of investigation], he may give custody thereof to any person on his executing a bond undertaking to produce the property before the Court as and when required and to give effect to the further orders of the Court as to the disposal of the same:

Provided that where the property seized under sub-section (1) is subject to speedy and natural decay and if the person entitled to the possession of such property is unknown or absent and the value of such property is less than five hundred rupees, it may forthwith be sold by auction under the orders of the Superintendent of Police and the provisions of Sections 457 and 458 shall, as nearly as may be practicable, apply to the net proceeds of such sale.

Notes on Clauses to 2005 Amendment ► The proposed amendment to sub-section (3) of Section 102 is intended to give greater discretion to the police for releasing seized property, where there is difficulty in securing proper accommodation for the custody of property or where the continued retention of the property in police custody is not considered necessary for the purposes of investigation.

It is also proposed that if the seized property is of perishable nature and value of such property is less than five hundred rupees and if the person entitled to the possession of such property is unknown or absent, the police be empowered to sell such property by auction under the orders of the Superintendent of Police. For this purpose a proviso is being inserted to sub-section (3) of Section 102 of the Code.

► Interpretation/Construction.—“Any property” includes any bank account creating suspicion about commission of an offence. Investigating officer (IO) in course of investigation has power to seize or prohibit operation of bank account of any person which may be found under circumstances creating suspicion of commission of any offence. Bank account need not be only of accused but can be any account creating suspicion about commission of offence. Even if name of a body/person with which accused concerned has an association (a trust in present case), is not included as accused in FIR but during investigation IO believes that persons named as accused are actively associated with that trust, and, that circumstances emerging from transaction(s) done by them from bank accounts pertaining to that trust create suspicion of commission of offence, IO can exercise his discretion to issue directions to seize those accounts, Teesta Atul Setalvad v. State of Gujarat, (2018) 2 SCC 372. ► Police Officer, Powers of.—A plain reading of sub-section (1) of Section 102 indicates that the police officer has the power to seize any property which may be found under circumstances creating suspicion of the commission of any offence. The legislature having used the expression “any property” and “any offence” have made the applicability of the provisions wide enough to cover offences created under any Act, State of Maharashtra v. Tapas D. Neogy, (1999) 7 SCC 685 : 1999 SCC (Cri) 1352.