BENGALURU: The senior counsel appearing for actress Harshavardhini Ranya, an accused in the gold smuggling case busted by the sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), argued before the Karnataka High Court that the arrest and seizure done in the case is illegal.
Senior Counsel Sandesh Chouta made this argument before Justice S Vishwajith Shetty on Thursday while the court was hearing the bail petition filed by Ranya. He submitted that the customs officials did not follow Section 102 of the Customs Act which outlines the procedure when a customs officer is about to search a person under Sections 100 or 101. It mandates that if the person being searched requests, they must be taken to the nearest gazetted officer of customs or magistrate without delay.
The officer can detain the person until they are brought before the authorised officer. However, in this case, this procedure was not followed and hence the entire seizure was vitiated, he argued.
He further said that even the arrest of Ranya is illegal. The whole grounds of arrest were communicated to her husband telephonically which is a clear violation of Section 50A of the Customs Act, he argued. “Her signatures were taken on blank sheets. Also, she has been in custody for more than 45 days and the offences alleged against her are compoundable in nature and triable by the magistrate,” he argued.
Further hearing was adjourned to April 21, with directives to the DRI to file their objections to the bail plea, if any, by the said date without delay. Ranya moved the HC for bail as her bail petition was rejected by the Special Court for Economic Offences and also the sessions court.
