Karnataka high court rejects actor Ranya Rao’s bail plea in gold smuggling case

The Karnataka high court on Saturday refused to grant bail to Kannada actor Ranya Rao and her friend and co-accused Tarun Konduru Raju in an alleged case of gold smuggling.

Justice S Vishwajith Shetty dismissed the bail applications filed by both Rao and Raju.

A detailed order of the Court is awaited.

While Rao, through her counsel Sandesh Chouta, argued that she had been “falsely implicated in the case,” advocate Madhu N Rao, the senior advocate representing the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the prosecuting agency in the case, opposed the bail plea filed by Rao as well Raju.

The DRI counsel told the court that the agency’s investigation so far had revealed that 100 kilograms of gold had been smuggled by Rao and Raju to India from Dubai.

The high court asked the DRI counsel at the time, how Rao had obtained VIP protocol and police escort at the Bengaluru airport? DRI, however, said it was yet to investigate “that angle.”

Raju’s counsel, meanwhile, urged the court to grant his client bail. He denied all allegations against him and said that even if the charges against him were taken at face value, the only allegation against him was that he had travelled to Dubai and handed over the gold to Rao.

Rao was arrested at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on March 3 after DRI officials found her in possession of 14.2 kg of gold bars worth ₹12.5 crore, upon her arrival from Dubai.

Raju was arrested by the DRI on March 9.

The central agency has claimed that the duo made over 20 trips to Dubai together between January and March this year alone. Officials suspect that overall, Rao made 56 trips to Dubai between 2023 and this year, the counsel for DRI said.

DRI also told the court earlier that before Rao was arrested at the airport, she had claimed she did not have anything to declare at the green channel. Yet, when she was searched, gold bars worth over ₹12 crores were recovered from her.