Gold smuggling case: Actress Ranya Rao, Tarun Raju get bail

In a major development, the Special Court for Economic Offences in Bengaluru has granted conditional bail to jailed actress Ranya Rao on Tuesday

Bengaluru :In a major development, the Special Court for Economic Offences in Bengaluru has granted conditional bail to jailed actress Ranya Rao on Tuesday.

The court has also granted relief to the second accused Tarun Raju by allowing his bail petition.

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The accused have sought bail on the grounds of non-submission of the charge sheet against them by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) even after 60 days.

Considering the plea, the court has granted bail.

The court has asked the accused not to leave the country without prior permission of the court.

The matter has been adjourned to June 2.

Senior counsel Girish made submissions for Ranya Rao.

The court has directed the accused persons to provide provide surety by two persons and also furnish a bond of Rs 2 lakh each.

The court said that the applications filed by accused under the Section 187(3)(ii) of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Act were allowed.

The court has directed Ranya Rao and Tarun Raju to appear before this court on all the dates of hearing without fail.

They are further directed not to tamper or hamper the prosecution witnesses and to co-operate with the Investigating Officer’s investigation.

Ranya Rao, the stepdaughter of senior police officer Ramchandra Rao, was arrested on March 3 for allegedly smuggling 14.2 kg of gold, valued at more than Rs 12.56 crore. Ranya Rao and the other two accused in the case are currently lodged at the Bengaluru Central Prison.

On May 13, the Karnataka High Court directed the Union government to file its objections within two weeks in connection with the petition filed by Ranya Rao, challenging the invocation of the COFEPOSA Act against her in the gold smuggling case.

The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA), has been invoked against Ranya Rao.

The Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), a nodal agency under the Ministry of Finance, has invoked the COFEPOSA Act against the actress and other accused in the gold smuggling case as per the recommendation of the DRI, probing the case.

The bench has asked the Central government to file the objections within two weeks and adjourned the matter to June 3.

A vacation bench of Justice H.P. Sandesh and Justice Ramachandra Huddar gave the directions while looking into the petition by Ranya Rao seeking to declare that imposing the COFEPOSA Act against her is illegal and ‘void ab initio’ (void from the beginning).

In legal contexts, ‘void ab initio’ means that a contract, agreement, or other action is considered invalid and has no legal effect from the moment it was created.

Ranya Rao submitted that the constitutional provisions are violated in her case, and the grounds of her detention are erroneous and display a lack of application of mind.