Arrested actors Ranya Rao, Virat Konduru used cover of US passport, Europe travel plan for smuggling gold from Dubai, probe indicates

Two Dubai customs declaration documents – dated November 13, 2024, and December 20, 2024 – which were found at the residence of the actress after her arrest at the Bengaluru airport, indicate that she had claimed in Dubai that she was transporting gold to Geneva (but instead moved the gold to India), the DRI has indicated in documents to counter the bail plea.

The special magistrate’s court for economic offences rejected the bail plea of Ranya Rao on March 14. The actress has now moved a sessions court for bail. On the other hand, Virat Konduru has moved the special magistrate’s court for economic offences for bail.

US passport, Europe travel claims used to pass gold

The investigations reveal the involvement of an organised syndicate in India and Dubai that uses elaborate tactics to camouflage the illegal transfer of large quantities of gold to India through customs duty evasions.

Ranya Rao is alleged to have evaded Rs 4.83 crore of customs duty while attempting to smuggle into Bengaluru the 14.2 kg of gold worth Rs 12.56 crore. The DRI also seized Rs 2.67 crore in cash and Rs 2.07 crore of jewellery from the home of the actress following her arrest.

The investigations around Ranya Rao and Konduru, since their arrests on March 3 and March 9, respectively, have revealed that a US passport of Konduru was used by the two as a key instrument in smuggling the gold at the Dubai end of the operation.

Although the actress Ranya Rao has claimed in statements to the DRI that she received the 14.2 kg consignment of gold from a stranger outside the Dubai airport, the probe reveals that she played an active role in the smuggling operation which went beyond that of a mule.

The probe has indicated that the actress probably bought gold from a supplier in Dubai and got it declared in the name of her associate Konduru in Dubai – through purchase documents. The gold consignments in the name of Konduru were shown to Dubai customs as being taken to Geneva rather than India, sources said. Konduru’s Dubai visits allegedly overlapped with Ranya Rao’s travels.

The gold consignments were allegedly declared in the name of Konduru to Dubai customs since the Telugu actor has a US passport and the destination of the gold was designated as Geneva, Switzerland for which US passport holders do not require a separate visa since the US passport serves as a 90-day tourist visa in Geneva, Switzerland.

Central agencies which are now investigating the gold smuggling racket involving the actors are looking at whether the actors purchased air tickets for Geneva – with the express purpose of clearing customs in Dubai – but did not travel to Geneva at all and instead moved to India with the actress concealing the contraband on her body to escape customs checks in India.

The actress has claimed that she strapped the gold on her body using medical adhesives and bandages, at a toilet in the Dubai airport, after getting it cleared through Dubai checks.

The two actors are alleged to have travelled to Dubai around 25 times in recent months. The March 3 trip, where Ranya Rao was arrested, began with a 4 am flight from Bengaluru to Dubai and a same-day return flight with the gold.

The tickets were allegedly booked with a credit card of Jatin Hukkeri, 39, the architect husband of the actress, who has moved the Karnataka High Court requesting protection from any coercive action against him by the DRI. The architect who married the actress in November 2024 has claimed that the couple were estranged on account of frequent fights and quarrels.

The special court for economic offences in Bengaluru rejected the bail plea of Ranya Rao on March 14 by citing her possession of a ‘Resident Identity Card of UAE’ and “history of travel to Dubai on 27 occasions since January 2025”. The actress has claimed that she was a “real estate freelancer” in Dubai to explain her frequent trips to the UAE.

Background of Ranya Rao and Virat Konduru

Ranya Rao is the step-daughter of K Ramachandra Rao, a 1993-batch IPS officer who is a Director General of Police in Karnataka. She is alleged to have used the VIP services available to her stepfather at the Bengaluru airport to smuggle the 14.2 kg of gold in the form of gold ingots that were strapped on her body on March 3.

The IPS officer – who is considered to be close to Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara – was asked by the Karnataka government to go on “compulsory leave” on Saturday in the wake of multiple probes by central agencies into the gold smuggling racket.

The two arrested actors – Ranya Rao and Konduru – who have known each other for over a decade, are reported to have been partners in a diamond trading company in the UAE and much of the Dubai document work for gold consignments was allegedly done using the firm.

The central agencies are probing claims of one of the arrested actors that they were involved in the business of importing and selling gold in Dubai from Thailand, Switzerland and Africa.

The DRI has indicated in court that the payments for the purchase of the gold consignments in Dubai were routed through hawala channels from India to facilitate the smuggling to India.

Both actors did not have successful film careers with Ranya Rao acting in three films after her debut in the 2014 Kannada film Manikya.

Konduru, who is part of a prominent Andhra-origin Bengaluru business family with interests in hospitality, education, power and cable TV sectors, debuted as a hero in the 2018 film Parichayam but did not achieve much success.

Searches by central agencies in Bengaluru

On March 13, the central agencies – ED, DRI and CBI – which are investigating the gold smuggling racket after recent incidents in Bengaluru and Mumbai, conducted searches at locations linked to Ranya Rao, her husband Jatin Hukkeri, the actor Virat Konduru and to properties linked to a real estate businessman who has a gold purchase business in Bengaluru.

The family of Ranya Rao’s husband is known to have an association with members of the gold purchase firm owner’s family. A close relative of the businessman is known to have a thriving Dubai real estate business and a close association with the film world in South India as a producer and financier apart from political connections.

The detection of two cases “in quick succession involving passengers making trips from Dubai, the attempted smuggling of large quantities of gold into India and the high frequency of these visits involving Indian and foreign nationals, points to a possible nexus with coordinated smuggling syndicates, possibly operating from Dubai (UAE),” the DRI DG has stated in a letter to the CBI director on the basis of which CBI has registered an FIR.