Overview

• Kannada actress Ranya Rao, Tarun Konduru Raju and Sahil Jain received one-year imprisonment under COFEPOSA on July 17, with the board denying any bail application during their sentence.
• The board’s order upholds the Centre’s April 22 preventive detention directive and overrides default bail granted after procedural delays by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
• Authorities arrested Rao on March 3 at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport with 14.213 kg of gold valued at Rs 12.56 crore and later seized Rs 2.06 crore in jewellery and Rs 2.67 crore in cash from her home.
• Investigators uncovered a transnational syndicate that smuggled gold via at least 34 solo trips to Dubai along with false export declarations and hawala channels to import consignments from Dubai and Uganda.
• COFEPOSA allows preventive detention without trial for up to one year on suspicion of foreign exchange violations, with mandatory advisory board reviews every three months.