Bengaluru gold smuggling case: Actor Ranya Rao’s stepfather, DGP Ramachandra Rao, sent on compulsory leave

The Karnataka government on Saturday placed DGP-rank officer K Ramachandra Rao.

Whose stepdaughter Ranya Rao was arrested in a gold smuggling case, on compulsory leave, a government order said. “Sri. KV Sharath Chandra, IPS (KN-1997) Additional Director General of Police, Recruitment is placed in Concurrent Charge of the post of Chairman & Managing Director, Karnataka State Police Housing & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, Bengaluru with immediate effect and until further orders, Dr K Ramachandra Rao, IPS sent on compulsory leave,” the order said.

Ramachandra Rao – who has been serving as director general of police (DGP) since October 2023 and is chairman and managing director of the Karnataka State Police Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited – has faced scrutiny in the past. His tenure as IGP of the southern range was marred after his name surfaced in a case involving a large cash seizure.

Rao was arrested at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru on March 3 after Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials found her in possession of 14.2kg of gold bars worth ₹12.5 crore, upon her arrival from Dubai. The agency said that if the gold was legally imported, it would have attracted a 38.5% duty, amounting to ₹4.83 crore. DRI has also arrested Tarun Raju, a close acquaintance of Rao, on March 10, as he travelled with her to Dubai.

The Karnataka government on March 11 ordered a high-level probe into alleged misuse of protocol privileges at the Bengaluru airport by the Kannada actor and the possible involvement of her stepfather in the gold smuggling case. On March 10, the Karnataka government appointed additional chief secretary Gaurav Gupta to probe Rao’s possible involvement in Ranya’s alleged gold smuggling activities.

Other than the state police, CBI is looking into the case for a larger international syndicate that uses high-profile individuals as smuggling “mules”. Rao allegedly told investigators that the person she met at Dubai airport “was well-built and about six feet in height and was wearing a white gown”.

The federal agency will take the assistance of Interpol to get more details about the syndicate members, which, it suspects, is not limited to the UAE but has associates in Europe, the US and other countries as well, according to officials aware of the probe.

An investigation report in the case, seen says that Rao, before her travel on March 3, received calls from unknown numbers “asking her to be at gate ‘A’ of terminal-3 of Dubai International Airport to collect the gold bars and deliver it in Bengaluru”.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also joined the case to investigate the money laundering aspect of the smuggling. Kannada actress Harshavardhini Ranya, key accused in the gold smuggling case, has alleged that officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) assaulted her and forced her to sign blank and typed papers.

In a letter addressed to the Additional Director General of the DRI in Bengaluru on March 6, Ranya claimed that a false case had been foisted on her. She stated that she was wrongly accused of carrying more than 14 kg of gold upon her return from Dubai. “Your officers did not permit me to explain that I am innocent in this matter,” alleged Harshavardhini Ranya, also known as Ranya Rao.

The actress further claimed that from the time she was detained until she was produced before the court, she was slapped in the face 10 to 15 times.

“Despite repeated hitting and slapping, I refused to sign the statement they prepared.”She also alleged that she was forced to sign 50 to 60 typed papers and around 40 blank sheets. “One of the officers told me, ‘If you don’t sign, we will expose your father’s name and identity, even though we know he is not involved,” the model-actor claimed.

Rao, who made her acting debut with the 2014 Kannada movie Maanikya opposite actor Sudeep, married Bengaluru-based architect, Jatin Vijayakumar Hukkeri, three months ago.