A special court today rejected the bail plea of actor Ranya Rao, who was arrested for smuggling a large amount of gold. Another accused, Tarun Raju, has been sent to judicial custody for 15 days.
Authorities seized gold bars worth ₹12.56 crore from Ranya Rao at Bengaluru airport. Later, officials searched her properties and found gold jewelry worth ₹2.06 crore and ₹2.67 crore in cash.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started investigating the case, which involves Ranya Rao, who is the stepdaughter of Karnataka Director General of Police K. Ramachandra Rao.
Officials found that Ranya Rao booked round-trip tickets from Bengaluru to Dubai using her husband Jatin Hukkeri’s credit card, raising suspicions about his role in the smuggling.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) later searched nine locations in Bengaluru linked to Hukkeri. However, he obtained an interim order from the Karnataka High Court preventing his arrest for now.
During questioning, Ranya Rao told investigators that she received calls from unknown numbers instructing her to smuggle the gold. She claimed she learned how to hide gold by watching YouTube videos.
She also said she collected the gold at Dubai Airport’s Terminal 3, where a tall man in a gown handed it to her. She insisted that this was her first time and that she had never smuggled gold before.
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