‘Land not been officially handed over to Ranya Rao…’: State Minister MB Patil

BENGALURU: Karnataka Minister of Commerce and Industries, MB Patil on Monday said that the 12 acres of land sanctioned to Ksiroda India Private Limited, a company linked to actress Ranya Rao, accused in a gold smuggling case, has not been officially allocated as the company failed to make the prescribed payment.

“The previous BJP government had approved the allotment of 12 acres to Ksiroda India Private Limited, in which Ranya is one of the directors, at Sira Industrial Area. The decision was taken during the 137th State Level Single Window Clearance Committee (SLSWCC) meeting held on January 2, 2023. However, since the company did not remit the required payment within the stipulated time, the land has not been officially handed over, the Minister clarified while responding to media queries at Vidhana Soudha.

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)