A voluntary assertion given to the Directorate of Income Intelligence outlining his position in gold smuggling actions and his 25 Dubai visits with the Kannada actress Ranya Rao have been cited by a classes court docket on Monday to reject a bail plea filed by Telugu actor Tarun Konduru Raju alias Virat Konduru in a gold smuggling case.
Konduru, 36, was arrested on March 9 by the DRI, six days after the arrest of Ranya Rao alias Harshavardini Ranya, 33, at Bengaluru Worldwide Airport. Ranya Rao was arrested on her arrival from Dubai on March 3 after she was discovered to have hid 14.2 kg of gold value Rs 12.56 crore on her individual.
The DRI has alleged that Ranya Rao was assisted in smuggling gold by her long-term good friend and Telugu actor Virat Konduru, who used his US passport credentials to cross gold by Dubai customs checks to allow the gold to be smuggled to India.
Though the counsel for the Telugu actor argued that he was concerned solely within the enterprise of buying and selling gold in Dubai and never smuggling it to India, the classes court docket referred to Konduru’s voluntary assertion to the DRI to recommend that it confirmed prima facie information of the actress’s smuggling actions. The court docket mentioned the voluntary assertion of the accused will be thought-about as proof within the customs case.
The classes court docket additionally pointed to the DRI’s findings that Konduru and Ranya Rao had made as many as 25 single-day journeys to Dubai as prima facie proof of their involvement in smuggling.
The DRI argued through the bail listening to that Konduru and Ranya Rao labored in tandem to smuggle gold from Dubai to India on a number of events with Rao reserving tickets for Konduru to journey to the UAE metropolis and likewise tickets for journey from there to Geneva or Bangkok, which was used to camouflage the smuggling of gold from Dubai to India.
Konduru had claimed in Dubai that he was transporting gold to Geneva however moved it to India by Ranya Rao, the DRI argued.
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The DRI counsel indicated that the duo had travelled to Dubai 31 instances since January 2024, with them reaching the UAE metropolis by a morning flight and returning by a night flight in 25 of the journeys. The counsel argued that the actor Konduru would acquire the gold in Dubai—funds for which have been achieved in money allegedly transferred by the hawala route by Ranya Rao—after which hand it over to her on the airport.
“From January 2024 to November 2024, it was A1 (Ranya Rao) who funded the acquisition of tickets by A2 (Konduru) to Dubai and Geneva (a camouflage to cross the gold by Dubai customs). After November 2024, A1 deposited funds for A2 to purchase his tickets,” the DRI mentioned.
Konduru travelled to Dubai concurrently the actress—from Bengaluru or Hyderabad—to assist her smuggle the gold to India however returned to Hyderabad as an alternative of the Karnataka capital, the DRI acknowledged.
On March 19, a particular court docket for financial offences rejected a bail plea of Konduru by citing his frequent visits to Dubai. Earlier, the particular court docket had rejected Ranya Rao’s bail plea by citing her frequent Dubai visits and the classes court docket rejected Rao’s bail plea on March 27 by citing the hawala dealings allegedly concerned within the gold smuggling.
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The actress has now approached the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom for bail and the matter is prone to be heard this week by a single-judge bench of the court docket.
Other than the 2 actors, the DRI has additionally arrested a hawala seller from Bengaluru, Sahil Sakariya Jain for his alleged involvement within the gold smuggling racket as a receiver of the gold smuggled by Ranya Rao and the facilitator of hawala funds for the gold.
Ranya Rao, who allegedly evaded fee of Rs 4.83 crore in customs responsibility on the 14.2 kg of gold value Rs 12.56 crore, transferred 49.6 kg of gold value Rs 40.13 crore to Sahil Sakariya Jain after 4 earlier journeys to Dubai between November 2024 and February 2025, the DRI has reported.
Of this Rs 40.13 crore, Sahil Sakariya Jain is alleged to have transferred Rs 38.39 crore to Ranya Rao by the hawala route and Rs 1.73 crore to her in Bengaluru.
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