In connection with the major gold smuggling case, to which Kannada actress Ranya Rao had been named, she has been booked under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (COFEPOSA), 1974. The charges resulted in Rao being out of reach of bail for one year, which means she continues to be detained. Key reasons invoked the strict law were her lack of cooperation during the investigation and her potential to continue practising further smuggling activities.
Ranya Rao is presently lodged at Bengaluru Central Prison along with two other accused persons – Tarun Raju and Sahil Sakaria Jain. Raju and Jain have also been charged under the COFEPOSA Act. On Saturday, the Karnataka High Court turned down Rao and Raju’s plea for bail, thus extending their stay in custody.
With Ranya Rao arrested at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport on March 3, the case against her began. On her arrival from Dubai, officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted her, and she apparently carried gold bars worth ₹12.5 crore, weighing 14.2 kg. Later, she was arrested, which allowed further investigation to take place, resulting in the arrest of Tarun Raju on March 9.
Authorities are serious in addressing the case, so the COFEPOSA Act’s stringent application is being displayed. This was popularly referred to as the Act for curtailing smuggling and protecting the foreign exchange, showing the government’s tough stand against organised smuggling operations and therefore the right to preventive detention without right to regular bail.
Investigators will continue to poke around into the scope of the smuggling network,k and the authorities are expected to present detailed charge sheets against all the accused in the near future.
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