The Karnataka government has issued a circular, in which actress Ranya Rao’s stepfather DGP Ramchandra Rao has been immediately sent on leave, as his step daughter was recently arrested in a gold smuggling case. Additional Director General of Police (Recruitment) KV Sharath Chandra has been appointed as the Chairman of Karnataka State Police Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, Bangalore and MD, the post was earlier with the stepfather of Ranya.
Ranya Rao accused of assault
Earlier, Kannada actress Harshvardhini Ranya Rao, the main accused in the gold smuggling case, alleged that the Revenue Intelligence Directorate (DRI) officials assaulted him and forced him to sign the vacant and typed papers.
In a letter to the Additional Director General of DRI in Bengaluru on 6 March, Ranya claimed that a false case had been imposed on him. He said that on returning from Dubai, he was wrongly accused of carrying more than 14 kg of gold.
Harshvardhini Ranya alias Ranya Rao alleged, “Your officials did not allow me to tell me that I am innocent in the matter.”
The actress further claimed that she was slapped 10 to 15 times on her face from being detained to being produced in court.
Ranya Rao’s bail rejected
Actress Ranya Rao was refused to grant bail on Saturday, as DRI stated in the court that the Karnataka Police Protocol officer was used in a gold smuggling racket, including her.
In his argument against granting bail to Ranya, the Central Agency told the Special Court for economic crimes that the accused had visited Dubai 27 times since January this year.
DRI said, “The investigation so far has detected the sophisticated functioning used in gold smuggling, using the State Police Protocol Officer to ignore security, hawala transactions to transfer money from India to Dubai to buy gold and involvement of large syndicate.”