Actress Ranya Rao sent to judicial custody till March 24 in connection with gold smuggling case

BENGALURU: The Economic Offences Court in Bengaluru on Monday sent Kannada actress Ranya Rao to judicial custody till March 24 in connection with a gold smuggling case.

Ranya 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.

The court had asked the DRI official to produce the actress before the court by 4 pm and she was as produced after completing a medical examination.
Ranya Rao sought two minutes to interact with the advocates, to which the court reacted positively.

Ranya Rao 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 evidences of CCTV and her advocate 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.

Ranya, 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)