Probe into Bengaluru gold smuggling case indicates possible links to proclaimed offender in 2013 Delhi airport case

Investigations into a gold smuggling racket involving Kannada actress Ranya Rao alias Harshavardhini Ranya, 33, have revealed possible links between a hawala dealer arrested in the case and a proclaimed offender in a major gold smuggling case detected at the Delhi international airport in 2013.

- GNS News Agency

Sources indicated that hawala dealer Sahil Sakariya Jain, 27, who is accused of being the receiver of 49.6 kg of gold worth over Rs 40 crore smuggled from Dubai by the actress from November 2024 to February 2025, is linked to a man who was arrested in 2013 at the Delhi airport for smuggling 36.56 kg of gold in the baggage of a UAE embassy official. On March 11, 2013, a Delhi-based jewellery businessman Komal Jain, aged around 50, was detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on the basis of intelligence gathered by the DRI on his alleged involvement in gold smuggling using an UAE embassy official as a courier. The businessman, who arrived on a flight from Singapore, was found to be in possession of documents for the purchase of over 30 kg of gold jewellery while checks conducted by DRI officials on the baggage of a UAE embassy official who arrived on the same flight revealed the presence of 36.56 kg of gold worth Rs 9.79 crore at the time. The next day, DRI arrested Komal for smuggling gold while the UAE official, who enjoyed diplomatic immunity from arrest, was sent back to Dubai by the UAE authorities. Subsequently, on June 11, 2013, Komal was detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA) on the basis of an order issued by the central government's Department of Revenue. While Komal was held in preventive detention under COFEPOSA, a habeas corpus petition was moved in the Delhi High Court for his release by his son, who identified himself as Sahil Jain. "Petitioner Sahil Jain has approached this Court for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus for release of his father Komal Jain, who has been ordered to be detained and kept in custody in the Central Jail, Tihar by an order dated 11.06.2013 issued under Section 3 (1) of the COFEPOSA Act by the Joint Secretary to the Govt of India," the court noted in a November 13, 2013, order for the release of Komal Jain.