Bengaluru
Kannada actress Ranya Rao and other accused Kondaru Raju were granted conditional bail from the Special Court of Economic Offenses on Tuesday in the gold smuggling case. The court has asked both of them to deposit two bailable witnesses and bonds of Rs 2-2 lakh. Judge Vishnath C. Goddar gave this bail, but laid the condition that both the accused could neither leave the country nor do such a crime again. The decision came when the Dilator of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) failed to present the charge sheet against the accused.
According to the report, Ranya Rao has been granted bail in the gold smuggling case by the Special Court, but she will not be released at the moment. The reason is that a case has now been registered against him under another strict law under Forex Protection and Prevention of Smuggling Act, 1974. This law is used to stop smuggling and foreign currency rigging in India and can be kept in custody without prosecution. Until Ranya Rao gets bail under this law, his release is not possible.
Let us know that Ranya Rao was arrested on March 3 at Bengaluru International Airport, when she was quietly bringing about 14.2 kg of gold from Dubai. The price of this gold has been estimated to be more than Rs 12.56 crore and he had hidden it on his body. The DRI officials had already received information against him and had been monitoring them for a long time.
Investigation agencies say that Ranya and his partner Kondaru Raju made a total of 52 rounds of Dubai between 2023 and 2025, out of which 45 times he returned in just one day. These frequent international visits deepened suspicion of him and finally he came under DRI’s grip.
Many complaints have been filed against Kannada cinema’s popular actress Ranya Rao for smuggling gold. On March 3, 2025, the actress caught 12.56 crore gold at Campgowda Airport in Bangalore. Investigation revealed that the actress has been smuggling gold for a long time, whose wires are connected to London, Europe and Dubai. Now in the same case, on 26 April, Kannada actress Ranya Rao has been lodged with a complaint under COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smugging Activities). Due to this, Ranya will not get bail for at least one year.
According to the investigation athority, Ranya Rao was not assisting in investigation. He had filed a bail petition several times. This section has been imposed so that they can be prevented from going to this illegal work again.
What is the whole matter?
Kannada actress and senior police officer K.K. Ramchandra Rao’s half -daughter Ranya Rao landed at Campgowda Airport in Bangalore on 3 March.
At around 6 o’clock, Ranya moved towards the exit gate. She went to the Green Channel to get out. Green channel is for passengers who have no goods in terms of investigation.
Ranya used to get out of the airport in the same way. On that day, the officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence i.e. DRI stopped him. Asked- Do you have gold or anything that you want to tell? Ranya replied- no.
In such a conversation, Ranya’s face started appearing nervous. Officers suspected. He called two female officers and asked Ranya to check. When he was searched, gold was found in different parts of his body. A total of 14.2 kg of gold was recovered from them, which cost Rs 12.56 crore.
Ranya was immediately taken into custody. Since then, Ranya has been in police custody. According to police sources, Ranya has said that she had gone to Europe, America and Middle East countries many times. He described this because of the modeling photo shoot and real estate related work.
Ranya is currently closed with two co-accused Tarun Raju and Sahil Sakariya in Banglore’s Central Jail. The matter is being investigated by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Information Directorate and CBI.
