Gold smuggling: Telugu actor Virat Konduru’s bail plea rejected again as court cites his voluntary statement, 25 Dubai trips with Ranya Rao

The DRI has alleged that Ranya Rao was assisted in smuggling gold by her long-term friend and Telugu actor Virat Konduru, who used his US passport credentials to pass gold through Dubai customs checks to enable the gold to be smuggled to India.

Although the counsel for the Telugu actor argued that he was involved only in the business of trading gold in Dubai and not smuggling it to India, the sessions court referred to Konduru’s voluntary statement to the DRI to suggest that it showed prima facie knowledge of the actress’s smuggling activities. The court said the voluntary statement of the accused can be considered as evidence in the customs case.

The sessions court also pointed to the DRI’s findings that Konduru and Ranya Rao had made as many as 25 single-day trips to Dubai as prima facie evidence of their involvement in smuggling.

The DRI argued during the bail hearing that Konduru and Ranya Rao worked in tandem to smuggle gold from Dubai to India on multiple occasions with Rao booking tickets for Konduru to travel to the UAE city and also tickets for travel from there to Geneva or Bangkok, which was used to camouflage the smuggling of gold from Dubai to India.

Konduru had claimed in Dubai that he was transporting gold to Geneva but moved it to India through Ranya Rao, the DRI argued.

The DRI counsel indicated that the duo had travelled to Dubai 31 times since January 2024, with them reaching the UAE city by a morning flight and returning by an evening flight in 25 of the trips. The counsel argued that the actor Konduru would collect the gold in Dubai—payments for which were done in cash allegedly transferred through the hawala route by Ranya Rao—and then hand it over to her at the airport.

“From January 2024 to November 2024, it was A1 (Ranya Rao) who funded the purchase of tickets by A2 (Konduru) to Dubai and Geneva (a camouflage to pass the gold through Dubai customs). After November 2024, A1 deposited funds for A2 to buy his tickets,” the DRI said.

Konduru travelled to Dubai at the same time as the actress—from Bengaluru or Hyderabad—to help her smuggle the gold to India but returned to Hyderabad instead of the Karnataka capital, the DRI stated.

On March 19, a special court for economic offences rejected a bail plea of Konduru by citing his frequent visits to Dubai. Earlier, the special court had rejected Ranya Rao’s bail plea by citing her frequent Dubai visits and the sessions court rejected Rao’s bail plea on March 27 by citing the hawala dealings allegedly involved in the gold smuggling.

The actress has now approached the Karnataka High Court for bail and the matter is likely to be heard this week by a single-judge bench of the court.

Apart from the two actors, the DRI has also arrested a hawala dealer from Bengaluru, Sahil Sakariya Jain for his alleged involvement in the gold smuggling racket as a receiver of the gold smuggled by Ranya Rao and the facilitator of hawala payments for the gold.

Ranya Rao, who allegedly evaded payment of Rs 4.83 crore in customs duty on the 14.2 kg of gold worth Rs 12.56 crore, transferred 49.6 kg of gold worth Rs 40.13 crore to Sahil Sakariya Jain after four earlier trips to Dubai between November 2024 and February 2025, the DRI has reported.

Of this Rs 40.13 crore, Sahil Sakariya Jain is alleged to have transferred Rs 38.39 crore to Ranya Rao through the hawala route and Rs 1.73 crore to her in Bengaluru.