Ranya Rao, Kannada actress was arrested on Wednesday at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport for allegedly smuggling gold from Dubai. Gold bars worth Rs. 12.56 crore, weighing almost 15 kilograms, were recovered from her possession.
Rao is the stepdaughter of senior Karnataka IPS officer Ramachandra Rao. She travelled to Dubai 30 times over the past year. She allegedly brought back kilos of gold on each of her trips. According to the sources, Rao was paid ₹1 lakh per kilogram of smuggled gold. Thus, she allegedly earned around ₹12-13 lakh per trip.
As per the investigations, the actress used modified jackets and waist belts repeatedly for her smuggling operations. She used the same jackets and belts during her travels. She was hiding the gold bars in her modified jacket at the time of her arrest by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).
Ranya Rao was on the radar of the authorities for some time due to the frequency of her trips to Dubai. She was intercepted by the DRI officials on her return on Wednesday just as she was about to clear airport security.
Rao mentioned that she was the daughter of IPS officer Ramachandra Rao, who is posted as DGP (Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation). However, she was frisked, and the gold was recovered.
The total seizure in the case stood at Rs. 17.29 crore, including assets worth Rs. 4.73 crore. Meanwhile, Ramachandra Rao expressed shock at his daughter’s arrest.
“I was also shocked and devastated when such an incident came to my notice through the media, I was not aware of any of these things, and like any other father, I was also shocked. She is not living with us, she is living separately with her husband, there must be some problems between them due to some family issues. Anyway, the law will do its job, there is no black mark in my career. I don’t want to say anything more,” he said as quoted by ANI.
Comments