Actress Ranya Rao fined Rs 102 crore, DRI action in gold smuggling case

Mumbai: Actress Ranya Rao, who is serving jail sentence in illegal gold smuggling case from Dubai, has now received a notice from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to pay a fine of Rs 102.55 crore. She was arrested by the police at Kempegowda International Airport for illegally smuggling gold. During this, DRI officials seized 14.8 kg of gold from Ranya Rao.

During the investigation of this case, DRI came to know that Ranya Rao had gone to Dubai four times in about 15 days and every time she smuggled gold. Now in this case, a notice has been issued by the DRI to pay a fine of Rs 102.55 crore. On September 2, all four accused including Ranya have been sent to jail and a notice has been issued. According to the information, if the fine is not paid, the property may be confiscated.

In the case, the DRI imposed a fine of Rs 63 crore on hotelier Tarun Kondaraju and Rs 56 crore each on jewellers Sahil Sakaria Jain and Bharat Kumar Jain. On Tuesday, DRI officials reached Bangalore Central Jail and served notices of 250 pages each and an annexure of 2,500 pages to all of them. “It was a tough task to prepare a detailed notice with supporting documents. Today we handed over 11,000 pages of documents to the accused,” a DRI source said. The actress was sentenced to one year imprisonment under the stringent Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Smuggling Act in July this year in the gold smuggling case. The case related to COFEPOSA came up in the High Court on Tuesday, where its hearing was adjourned to September 11, DRI sources said. On March 3, the DRI arrested actress Ranya Rao from Kempe Gowda International Airport, Bangalore, who was trying to smuggle more than 14 kg of gold from Dubai to India. After this, on March 6, two foreign nationals (one Omani and one UAE citizen) were arrested at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai. They were trying to bring 21.28 kg of gold, worth about Rs 18.92 crore, to India.

At the same time, in the gold smuggling case involving actress Ranya Rao, the Karnataka government sent her stepfather DGP rank officer K. Ramachandra Rao on compulsory leave. During this incident, IPS officer K. Ramachandra Rao was working as the Chairman and Managing Director of Karnataka State Police Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation. After this, on August 11 last month, the Karnataka government appointed senior IPS officer K Ramachandra Rao as the DGP of the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement. The compulsory leave imposed on him following the arrest of his stepdaughter and actress Ranya Rao in a gold smuggling case was withdrawn.

A government order said, “The order of compulsory leave in respect of Dr. K Ramachandra Rao, IPS (KN 1993) is withdrawn and the officer is posted against the advanced vacant post of Director General of Police, Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement with immediate effect and until further orders.” It said the post of Director General of Police, Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement, under Rule 12 of the IPS (Pay) Rules 2016, as included in Schedule II of the said rules, is declared equivalent in status and responsibilities to the cadre post of Director General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, Special Units and Economic Offences, Bengaluru.