BENGALURU: More gold worth Rs 2 crore and cash totalling Rs 2.7 crore tumbled out of Kannada actor Ranya Rao‘s posh Bengaluru apartment on Wednesday as Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) doubled down on its probe into her alleged link with a smuggling network after she was caught flying back from Dubai with gold bars weighing 14.2kg concealed in a belt strapped to her body.
A jewellery boutique in the city’s central business district has become the focus of the probe, based on new findings since Ranya’s arrest at Bengaluru airport on Monday night. The actor’s father is a senior IPS officer. The gold and unaccounted cash found at Ranya’s Lavelle Road apartment took the value of the seizures from her to Rs 17.3 crore.
“The ornaments found in her residence were apparently sourced from a designer jewellery store on Lavelle Road. Preliminary investigations suggest the purchase was linked to a prominent politician. We are exploring how the payments were routed,” a DRI source said.
Ranya has been charged under the Customs Act, 1962. Her husband and other family members are likely to be interrogated. “Like any other father, I was devastated when it (Ranya’s alleged crime) came to my notice through the media. I was unaware of any of these things. She lives separately; there has been no blemish on my career,” ANI quoted Ranya’s father Ramachandra Rao, DGP of Karnataka Police Housing Corporation, as saying.
State home minister G Parameshwara said the govt wouldn’t make a comment “since the matter is being probed by DRI, a central agency”. “We have not received any information. Let DRI complete the probe and prepare a report,” he said.
