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Journalism of Courage
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Arvind Kamath submitted before the Karnataka High Court Wednesday that appropriate efforts had been made to communicate to actress Ranya Rao the reasons for her arrest in the gold smuggling case, as required by the law. The ASG also highlighted the alleged role of the co-accused in the case, Tarun Konduru Raju.
The matter was heard by the division bench of Justices Anu Sivaraman and Vijaykumar Patil. The ASG’s arguments were made in the context of petitions filed by the mothers of Ranya and Tarun, seeking an order declaring their detentions under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (Cofeposa) Act as illegal.
Ranya was arrested on March 3 at the Bengaluru airport while allegedly attempting to evade customs duty to the tune of Rs 4.83 crore by strapping smuggled gold on her body using bandages.
The order for detention for Ranya and the co-accused under the Cofeposa Act was issued by the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of Finance on April 22, based on a request of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). Detainees under this order could be kept in custody for up to a year even after obtaining bail.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, ASG Kamath argued that the information regarding Ranya’s arrest, including the grounds on which it was done, had been properly communicated to her, even though it was not possible to hand her a pen drive due to jail rules. He stated, “The day the grounds of detention was served, three different officers went to the prison… They played the entire pen drive and got a statement [from] each of the accused…”
The ASG read out a signed acknowledgement statement, adding, “We suspected that the detenue will say, ‘They asked me to sign something, I signed’. So they were vigilant enough to ask to hand-write.” He said since the pen drive could not be handed over at the prison, it was given to Ranya’s legal representative Shashwat Prakash.
The ASG also flagged the alleged role of Tarun Raju, stating, “He has extensively travelled to Dubai and other African countries in a lookout for how to source gold. He was a partner in a company by the name of Veera Diamonds. The billing was done in that name… Therefore, Tarun Raju has played a significant role which forms a link in the chain of smuggling.”
The matter has been posted for further hearing on November 19.
