Gold smuggling case: Actor Ranya Rao’s IPS stepfather sent on compulsory leave
A 1993-batch IPS officer, 58-year-old K Ramachandra Rao was considered to be in contention to be the next state police chief.
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The DRI had claimed before the court that the police protocol service available at the airport for K Ramachandra Rao was misused by Ranya Rao for gold smuggling. (Express File Photo)Gold smuggling accused actor Ranya Rao’s stepfather and DGP-rank IPS officer K Ramachandra Rao was sent on “compulsory leave” by the Karnataka government, according to an order on Saturday.
The charge of the chairman and managing director for the Karnataka State Police Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation, which was being held by Rao, will be concurrently held by K V Sharath Chandra, a 1997-batch IPS officer, who is an additional DGP for recruitment, the government order said.
A 1993-batch IPS officer, 58-year-old Rao was considered to be in contention to be the next state police chief.
On Friday, a court in Bengaluru had rejected Ranya Rao’s bail plea in the gold smuggling case citing 27 visits to Dubai since January 2025, a Dubai Resident Identity Card that she holds, and a threat to national security.
The DRI had claimed before the court that the police protocol service available at the airport for K Ramachandra Rao was misused by Ranya Rao for gold smuggling.
Rao was arrested by the DRI on March 3 at the Bengaluru International Airport and 14.2 kg gold worth Rs 12.56 crore was seized. She was intercepted by DRI officers when she did not declare the gold consignment on her person to customs authorities but instead walked through the green channel at the airport with Bengaluru police protocol escort.
Soon after her arrest, her stepfather had distanced himself from his daughter, claiming that she has not been in touch with the rest of the family after her marriage in November 2024 to an architect.
On March 9, Ranya’s long-time associate Tarun Konduru Raju, 30, a Telugu film actor, who uses the screen name Virat Konduru, was arrested by the DRI for being part of an alleged gold smuggling syndicate that brings gold to India from Dubai.
Apart from the DRI probe, the CBI has registered a separate case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and for criminal conspiracy. The ED has also registered a money laundering case to probe the sources of funds for the purchase of gold in Dubai by the actor and the manner of its disposal in India.
A combined team of the three central agencies has reportedly searched the premises linked to Ranya Rao, her husband, Raju and a businessman involved in gold purchase in Bengaluru on March 13.
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