K’taka BJP chief urges CM Siddaramaiah to disclose names of ministers allegedly involved in Ranya Rao’s gold smuggling case

BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party Karnataka President BY Vijayendra has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to disclose the names of ministers allegedly involved in the Ranya Rao gold smuggling case.

Speaking to mediapersons on Monday, Vijayendra stated that there is information indicating the involvement of certain ministers in the smuggling operation.

“In one of the rarest of the rarest cases, the daughter of a senior IPS officer who had been arrested recently at the Bangalore International Airport in a famous, infamous gold smuggling case. The information which is coming out is that we have been told of the information we are getting that some of the senior ministers are fully supporting Rania Rao, the daughter of a senior IPS officer. So my demand to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is to please disclose the name of the ministers who are involved in this gold smuggling case, or please disclose the names of the ministers who have been supporting Rania Rao,” he added.

He emphasized that this is not a minor incident, as reports suggest that Ranya Rao had traveled abroad specifically to Dubai and other countries over 30 times in the past few months.

“She was escorted by police officers, indicating that she is not an ordinary individual. If someone is receiving protocol treatment at Kempegowda International Airport and is exempt from security checks, it suggests the involvement of influential individuals, including some ministers,” he added.

He also mentioned that investigations by the CBI and ED are already underway.

BJP leader Bharath Shetty also alleged that the Karnataka State government has tried to influence the police to get her out of the case.

“CBI has already taken up the case and they are doing their investigation. It is in the public domain that the Karnataka state government have tried to influence the police to get her out of the problem when she got caught in the gold smuggling case,” the BJP leader said.
Earlier today, the Economic Offences Court in Bengaluru sent Kannada actress Ranya Rao to judicial custody till March 24 in connection with a gold smuggling case.

Ramya Rao was produced before the bench of Vishwanath C Gowdar at the special court for economic offences in Bengaluru after three days of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) custody.

Ranya Rao sought two minutes to interact with the advocates, to which the court reacted positively.

The actress also alleged that the DRI officials had verbally harassed her during her three-day interrogation. To this, the DRI said that we just asked which are relevant and we can produce all the video evidence of CCTV and her advocate was also present at the time of interrogation.

Rao was arrested on March 3 by the DRI at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIAD) in Bengaluru for allegedly smuggling 14.8 kilograms of gold from Dubai.

Ranya’s arrest followed a tip-off regarding her involvement in smuggling gold into India. DRI officials had stationed a team at the airport to intercept her upon arrival, and she was taken into custody immediately after landing.

The actress, the stepdaughter of DGP K Ramachandra Rao, was produced before a special court judge on the evening of March 4 for financial offences. On March 4, Ranya Rao was produced before a special court for financial offences and was remanded to judicial custody until March 18. (ANI)