Who is actress Ranya Rao? Arrested for smuggling ₹12.56 crore gold at Bengaluru Airport

Gold bars worth Rs 12.56 crore have been seized from Kannada actress Ranya Rao at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) gave this information on Wednesday. Based on intelligence, DRI officials intercepted a 33-year-old Indian female passenger, who arrived in Bengaluru from Dubai on March 3 on an Emirates flight.

After this action, DRI officials searched her residential premises at Lavelle Road in Bengaluru, where she lives with her husband. Gold jewelry worth Rs 2.06 crore and Indian currency worth Rs 2.67 crore were seized during the search. The female passenger has been arrested under the relevant provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

A senior police official said that actress Ranya Rao is the stepdaughter of senior IPS officer Ramachandra Rao. Ramachandra Rao is currently serving as the Director General of Police of Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation. Before her arrest, she lived with her husband in a residential complex on Lavelle Road in Bengaluru.

The police officer's first wife had died and he married a woman who had two daughters from her first marriage. Ranya is one of them. 33-year-old actress Ranya Rao made her debut in 2014 with the Kannada film Manikya.

Ranya Rao is accused of carrying smuggled gold in a briefcase along with two people accompanying her. They had almost passed the security check at Kempegowda airport and were about to exit when the DRI team, having special intelligence about the smuggling attempt, stopped them and started searching. "On investigation, gold bars weighing 14.2 kg were found cleverly concealed on the person's body. The smuggled gold worth Rs 12.56 crore was seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962," a DRI statement said.

According to reports, Ranya Rao has been making frequent short trips to Gulf countries and this brought her under the DRI's radar.