Hawala vendor Sahil Sakariya Jain, who was arrested in reference to the gold smuggling actions of Kannada actor Ranya Rao and Telugu actor Virat Konduru, was concerned in a serious gold smuggling racket working out of Kolkata in 2019-2020 and was named in a Directorate of Income Intelligence (DRI) prosecution grievance in 2022, officers mentioned.
Jain was arrested on March 26 in Bengaluru for allegedly being the meant receiver of the gold Rao, 33, smuggled from Dubai. Countering Jain’s bail plea, the DRI Wednesday cited his prior gold smuggling antecedents. Throughout arguments in a particular courtroom for financial offences, DRI counsel Madhu N Rao referred to a DRI grievance filed below the Customs Act in a Kolkata Justice of the Peace’s courtroom on March 5, 2022 in a case involving the smuggling of 41.64 kg of gold to counter Jain’s counsel’s declare that the 26-year-old had no prior historical past of crime.
“A false declare has been product of A3 having no felony antecedents. He was named as accused quantity 10 in a prosecution grievance for a gold smuggling case in Kolkata in 2022. He’s accused of arranging couriers for the transport of enormous portions of gold from Kolkata to different cities,” the DRI counsel argued, searching for rejection of Jain’s bail plea.
Between 2019 and 2020, the DRI obtained intelligence a few smuggling syndicate working from Kolkata, Mumbai and Raipur, which was smuggling foreign-marked gold from Bangladesh by the Indo-Bangladesh borders of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal. Based mostly on the intelligence, the DRI carried out operations to get well the smuggled gold and intercepted individuals carrying smuggled gold in Kolkata, Raipur and Mumbai, resulting in the restoration of 41.64 kg of gold.
Initially, one of many gold carriers discovered with 6.98 kg of gold in Mumbai in December 2019 mentioned the meant receiver of the gold was Jain, who was dwelling in Mumbai on the time. Jain was arrested and located to be a key participant within the smuggling racket.
On Thursday, throughout arguments within the particular courtroom in Bengaluru, the DRI counsel argued that Jain had legitimate visas to journey to China and Thailand and posed a flight danger if granted bail. The DRI counsel instructed the courtroom that Jain was a key participant within the gold smuggling racket in Bengaluru that has emerged following the March 3 arrest of Rao alias Harshavardini Ranya at Bengaluru Worldwide Airport on her arrival from Dubai with 14.2 kg of gold valued at ₹12.56 crore hid on her physique. The smuggling of the 14.2 kg of gold would have resulted in customs obligation evasion of ₹4.83 crore, the DRI mentioned.
Previous to Rao’s arrest on March 3, Jain had obtained 49.6 kg of smuggled gold valued at ₹40.13 crore from the actor following visits to Dubai between November 2024 and February 2025, the DRI counsel argued.
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The actor, who’s the stepdaughter of a senior Karnataka police officer of the rank of Director Common of Police, is alleged to have used the police protocol providers accessible at Bengaluru airport to the senior IPS officer to bypass bodily checks on the airport.
Sources mentioned a detailed relative of the hawala vendor was arrested in 2013 in reference to a gold smuggling and overseas trade violation case the place diplomatic channels from the UAE have been used to smuggle gold into India.
In line with the DRI’s investigation of Jain’s offers with Rao, he obtained 8.98 kg of gold price ₹6.82 crore in November 2024 from the actress; 12.62 kg of gold price ₹9.94 crore in December 2024; 14.56 kg of gold valued at ₹11.55 crore in January 2025; and 13.43 kg of gold price ₹11.80 crore in February 2025.
In line with the DRI probe, Jain transferred ₹38.39 crore of the ₹40.13 crore to Rao by the hawala route, and round ₹1.73 crore in Bengaluru through hawala exchanges. Jain mentioned he had obtained a fee of ₹55,000 for each consignment of smuggled gold he obtained from the actor in Bengaluru and for facilitating the switch of funds from the gross sales to Dubai.
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The US passport of Telugu actor Virat Konduru alias Tarun Konduru Raju (36) was used to cross the gold by Dubai customs checks earlier than smuggling it to India, the DRI mentioned.
The DRI indicated that the 2 actors travelled to Dubai as many as 31 instances since January 2024, with as many as 25 journeys being single-day affairs the place they reached Dubai by a morning flight and returned by a night flight.
The particular courtroom for financial offences has reserved its orders on Jain’s bail plea.
On Wednesday, Rao additionally moved the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom for bail following rejection of her earlier bail pleas by the particular courtroom for financial offences on March 14 and a classes courtroom on March 27. The Excessive Courtroom has posted the case for April 17 after ordering notices to the DRI to reply to the bail plea.