A periods court docket in Bengaluru Thursday rejected a bail plea filed by Kannada movie actress Ranya Rao, 33, who’s accused of smuggling 14.2 kg of gold price Rs 12.56 crore from Dubai.
The periods court docket rejected the bail plea of the actress by stating that the switch of funds via the hawala route to buy the gold and smuggle it to India – as said by the Directorate of Income Intelligence (DRI) from its investigations – would quantity to an act in opposition to the curiosity of nationwide safety.
The rejection of bail by the periods court docket was the second such occasion encountered by Ranya Rao alias Harshavardini Ranya since her arrest on March 3 on the Bengaluru worldwide airport whereas allegedly trying to evade customs obligation to the tune of Rs 4.83 crore by wrapping 14.2 kg of gold biscuits on her physique with medical adhesives and bandages.
Earlier, a particular Justice of the Peace’s court docket for financial offences had rejected the bail plea of the actress by citing her 27 visits to Dubai inside a span of three months in 2025.
In the course of the bail listening to within the periods court docket this week, the DRI argued that the actress was the supply of the funds with which gold was bought in Dubai for smuggling to India by her affiliate, Telugu actor Tarun Konduru Raju, 36, alias Virat Konduru, a US citizen.
The DRI said that the gold in Dubai was bought with funds transferred via hawala routes by the actress and that the tickets for journey to Dubai by the actress and her Telugu actor pal have been booked utilizing funds supplied by the actress. Releasing the actress on bail can be detrimental to the investigation of the case, the DRI argued.
The periods court docket rejected the arguments made by the counsel for the actress that the DRI’s bodily search of the actress on March 3 when she was intercepted couldn’t have been authorised by a gazetted officer from the Customs division for the reason that DRI is a part of the customs division.
Story continues beneath this advert
The periods court docket rejected the argument made on behalf of the actress that the bodily search of the suspect in a Customs division case have to be authorised by a gazetted officer who doesn’t belong to the division – as mandated by the Narcotic Medicine and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for narcotics instances.
The court docket additionally overruled arguments made on behalf of the actress over the presence of two variations of consent for search given to DRI.
Earlier, a Justice of the Peace’s court docket had rejected the argument of Ranya Rao’s advocates that the DRI didn’t adjust to Part 102 of the Customs Act and didn’t acquire the written consent of the actress earlier than conducting a bodily search to search out the gold hid on her physique.
The argument can’t be accepted as a result of “there may be written consent of accused No.1 on file to point out the compliance of the stated part. The stated consent at this juncture is enough to collect triable case in opposition to the accused No.1,” the Justice of the Peace’s court docket had dominated in its March 14 order.
Story continues beneath this advert
Beneath Part 102 of the Customs Act, “When any officer of customs is about to look any individual underneath the provisions of part 100 or part 101, the officer of customs shall, if such individual so requires, take him with out pointless delay to the closest Gazetted Officer of customs or Justice of the Peace.”
The actress was intercepted by DRI officers on March 3 when she didn’t declare the gold consignment on her individual to customs authorities however as an alternative walked via a inexperienced channel on the airport with the escort of a Bengaluru police protocol official.
Ranya Rao is by the way the stepdaughter of senior Karnataka DGP-rank IPS officer Okay Ramachandra Rao. The police protocol service accessible on the airport to the DGP was misused for gold smuggling by Ranya Rao, the DRI has claimed.