Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Arvind Kamath submitted before the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday that adequate efforts have been made to inform actress Rania Rao of the reasons for her arrest in the gold smuggling case, as required by law. The ASG also highlighted the alleged role of the co-accused in the case, Tarun Kunduru Raju.
The matter was heard by a division bench of Justices Anu Sivaraman and Vijaykumar Patil. The ASG’s arguments came in the context of petitions filed by Rania and Tarun’s mothers, seeking an order declaring their detention under the Preservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (Kovipuzha) Act illegal.
Rania was arrested on March 3 at the Bengaluru airport while trying to evade customs duties amounting to Rs 4.83 crore by tying smuggled gold on her body using bandages.
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The arrest warrant for Rania and the other accused under the Kovipuzha Act was issued by the Finance Ministry’s Central Economic Intelligence Bureau on April 22, at the request of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). Those arrested under this order can be kept in custody for up to a year even after obtaining bail.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, Assistant General Secretary Kamath said that information relating to Rania’s arrest, including the grounds on which it was made, had been properly communicated to her, even though the pen drive could not have been handed over to her due to prison rules. “On the day the grounds for detention were given, three different officers went to the prison… and fully engaged the pen drive and obtained a statement (from) each accused…,” he said.
The Assistant Secretary-General read out a signed statement of acknowledgment and added: “We suspected the detainee would say: ‘They asked me to sign something, I signed.’ So they were alert enough to ask for handwriting.” He said that since the pen drive could not be handed over in jail, it was handed over to Rania’s legal representative Shashwat Prakash.
The ASG also pointed out the alleged role of Tarun Raju, saying: “He traveled extensively to Dubai and other African countries in search of how to get gold. He was a partner in a company called Veera Diamonds. The invoices were done in that name… Therefore, Tarun Raju played an important role forming a link in the smuggling chain.”
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The case was postponed for hearing on November 19.
© Indian Express Company Limited
(tags for translation) Rania Rao Arrest News
