Gold smuggling case: Senior Karnataka cop appears before panel probing misuse of protocol services by stepdaughter Ranya Rao

Ranya is alleged to have used protocol services available to the senior police officer in her effort to smuggle 14.2 kg of gold valued at ₹ 12.56 crore and evade customs duty to the tune of ₹ 4.83 crore on her arrival from Dubai on an Emirates flight at the Bengaluru airport on March 3.

The actress was searched by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence based on a specific intelligence input. Ranya, who did not declare that she was carrying gold while skipping the Customs check at the airport by using a green channel and state protocol services, was found to have concealed 14.2 kg of gold by strapping the gold biscuits on her person.

Soon after her arrest, Ramachandra had distanced himself from her activities and claimed that they had been estranged in recent months. “Ranya and her husband Jatin Hukkeri got married in 2024, and since then they have maintained complete independence and privacy. She stopped visiting the family home and we were also not given opportunities to visit them in their new home resulting in a clear and definitive separation between us and them,” Ramachandra said after the arrest.

“If there is any violation of law on the part of Ranya, the law will take its course,” Ramachandra said in the unsigned statement that was attributed to him.

Ramachandra, 58, a 1993-batch IPS officer, is among the seniormost police officers in Karnataka. He was considered to be a contender to be the next state police chief on account of his proximity to state Home Minister G Parameshwara.

On March 15, the Congress government in Karnataka said Ramachandra has been “sent on compulsory leave” while appointing a new chairman and managing director for the Karnataka State Police Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation. The post of the chairman of the police housing corporation was previously held by Ramachandra.

A police constable who was deputed to the airport to provide protocol services to senior police officers during their journey in and out of Bengaluru has stated to the DRI that Ramachandra had asked him to provide protocol services to his family members.

On March 10, the department of personnel and administrative reforms (DPAR) ordered an inquiry by Gupta into allegations that protocol services at the airport had been misused. “The government considers it necessary to conduct an investigation into the facts and circumstances that led to her availing the protocol facilities and the role of the Director General of Police, Mr. Ramchandra Rao, IPS, Managing Director, Karnataka State Police Housing and Infrastructure Corporation in this case,” states the DPAR order.

The order states that Gupta “has been appointed to investigate the facts and circumstances leading to the ‘availment’ of the protocol facilities” and Ramachandra’s role. The IAS officer has been given a week to conclude the probe and submit a report.

Ranya is alleged to have travelled to Dubai 27 times in six months. The DRI has suggested that some of these trips may have also involved gold smuggling.

Apart from the DRI probe and state inquiry into the gold smuggling, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and for criminal conspiracy. The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has also registered a money laundering case to probe the sources of funds for the purchase of gold in Dubai by Ranya and the manner of its disposal in India.

A combined team of the DRI, the ED and the CBI is reported to have searched premises linked to Ranya, her husband, her arrested associate and a businessman involved in the purchase of gold in Bengaluru on March 13.

Ranya is one of Ramchandra’s two stepchildren from a second marriage that took place after the death of his first wife over a decade ago. The IPS officer and his family are considered to be close to many state politicians.

Ranya has moved the sessions court for bail after her earlier plea was rejected by a magistrate’s court. Her husband, Hukkeri, has moved the high court with a plea to direct the DRI not to take coercive action against him.

A Telugu film actor, Tarun Konduru Raju alias Virat Konduru, who is an associate of the actress and has been arrested by the DRI in the gold smuggling case, has moved a magistrate’s court for bail in the DRI case over the seizure of 14.2 kg of gold at the Bengaluru airport.