A Bengaluru businessman arrested for allegedly facilitating the acquisition of gold smuggled into India from Dubai by Kannada actress Ranya Rao had obtained smuggled gold from the actress on no less than three prior events earlier than her arrest, in accordance with the Directorate of Income Intelligence (DRI).
The investigations by the DRI following the March 26 arrest of businessman and hawala supplier Sahil Sakariya Jain, 40, who has a previous historical past of coping with smuggled gold, together with an arrest in Mumbai by the DRI in 2019-20, revealed that Jain presumably obtained a 14.5 kg gold consignment valued at Rs 11.55 crore allegedly smuggled by the actress on January 11.
The DRI has indicated, based mostly on knowledge extracted from digital devices belonging to Jain and the actress, that Jain was presumably the meant receiver of the 14.2 kg of gold price Rs 12.56 crore that the actress was caught with by the DRI on the Bengaluru Airport on March 3, 2025, on arrival from Dubai. The DRI has indicated its findings of the hyperlinks between the businessman and actress in court docket filings because the arrest of Jain.
On Saturday, the DRI approached a particular court docket for financial offences in Bengaluru for an additional 5 days of custody of Jain to conduct a deeper probe of his hyperlinks to the gold smuggling racket that has been unearthed because the probe began with the March 3 arrest of the Ranya Rao alias Harshavardini Ranya, the stepdaughter of a senior Karnataka police officer.
“The moment utility discloses the complainant company through the course of search on the enterprise premises of accused No.3 (Jain) located at Cubbonpet, Bengaluru having recovered incriminating supplies so additionally, accused No.3 having assisted and abetted the accused No.1 (Rao) in disposing the gold greater than 3 events as per his voluntary assertion dated 25.03.2025,” the court docket acknowledged whereas granting 5 extra days of custody of Jain to the DRI.
Jain, who was arrested after he was summoned for questioning by the DRI on the idea of an evaluation of knowledge from the digital devices of Ranya Rao, had earlier been remanded to 4 days of DRI custody by the particular court docket on March 26.
Jain, who was reportedly launched to the actress by an individual of Kerala origin final yr, is alleged to have been in contact with the actress when she was in Dubai to convey gold on March 3 and can be alleged to have facilitated hawala transfers of funds to the actress in Dubai and India after buy of smuggled gold in India.
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The probe has revealed that his cellphone quantity was reportedly saved in a coded kind on the actress’s cellphone to point that he was an “Au”/gold dispatcher in Bengaluru.
“From the examination of the papers it transpires that the accused No.3 (Jain) is alleged to have assisted and abetted the accused No.1 (Rao) in smuggling the gold by facilitating the hawala transaction opposite to the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962,” the particular court docket for financial offences acknowledged on Saturday whereas granting DRI’s plea for prolonged custody of Jain.
“The declare of the company to research on the idea of the leads by confronting the forensic extracts of accused No.3 and in addition to research relating to involvement of different individuals within the syndicate actually inclines the court docket to allow the company to research the case available,” the court docket noticed.
Who’s Sahil Jain?
Sahil Jain, who earlier labored for his father’s textile enterprise, later ventured into the enterprise of hawala cash transfers by beginning a agency within the outdated metropolis space of Bengaluru in Could 2024. In 2019, he was reported to have been arrested in Mumbai by the DRI after allegedly being recognized by a gold smuggling gang from Kolkata because the recipient of a 6.96 kg consignment of gold that was intercepted in Mumbai by the DRI.
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A Mumbai court docket granted Jain bail on February 1, 2020, within the Mumbai case the place 4 items of gold bars weighing 6.96 kg valued at Rs 2.71 crore had been recovered from a gold provider who transported the gold from Kolkata to Mumbai to allegedly hand over to Jain. The DRI alleged the gold seized in 2019 was a part of a giant parcel smuggled by way of Bangladesh.
Other than Ranya Rao and Sahil Jain, the DRI additionally arrested Telugu movie actor Tarun Konduru Raju alias Virat Konduru, 36, an affiliate of the actress, within the gold smuggling case. Konduru was arrested on March 9, six days after the actress was intercepted on the Bengaluru airport. A forensic evaluation of the actress’s cell phone and laptop computer revealed hyperlinks.
The DRI accuses Ranya Rao of getting financed the purchases of gold consignments in Dubai by Konduru and utilized the US passport of Konduru to move gold consignments by means of Dubai customs earlier than wrapping the gold bars on her particular person for smuggling to Bengaluru.
Throughout a bail listening to for Konduru on Saturday in a periods court docket in Bengaluru, the counsel for the Telugu actor argued that he was a businessman concerned within the gold commerce who bought gold from totally different components of the world and introduced it to Dubai on the market and that he had nothing to do with the gold smuggling actions of the arrested Ranya Rao.
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“Is it a criminal offense to do enterprise?” a senior counsel for Tarun Konduru argued.
Ranya Rao is alleged to have travelled to Dubai 27 occasions in 2025 alone. She and Konduru are alleged to have made 25 single-day journeys to Dubai to convey again gold on the market in India. The actress is alleged to have availed police protocol providers accessible to her DGP rank stepfather on the Bengaluru airport to evade scrutiny by customs officers.
Sources accustomed to the probe stated that efforts are at present being made to trace down the individuals who facilitated the link-up of the “gold dispatcher” and hawala operator Sahil Jain with the movie actress Ranya Rao to allow the gold smuggling and disposal. Jain has claimed that he obtained a fee of Rs 55,000 to facilitate purchases of the smuggled gold, sources stated.