Arrested from flight and tortured: Explosive allegation by actress Ranya Rao

Arrested from flight and tortured: Explosive allegation by actress Ranya Rao

Acting Chief Executive Officer Ranya Rao claimed that she was physically assaulted, deprived of food and sleep, and forced to sign blank documents under pressure.

Bengaluru:Actress Ranya Rao has claimed that she has been tortured in custody and falsely implicated in the high-profile gold smuggling case. In a letter addressed to the Additional Director General (ADG) of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Ms Rao has alleged that she was arrested directly from the plane and not from the airport terminal as officially stated.

She further claimed that she was physically assaulted, deprived of food and sleep and forced to sign blank documents under pressure.

Her allegations come a day after a special court in Bengaluru rejected her bail plea. The case has taken a political turn, with the Karnataka government ordering a probe into the alleged involvement of Ms Rao’s stepfather, Karnataka Director General of Police K Ramachandra Rao, and possible lapses by law enforcement officials.

Ms Rao was arrested by the DRI at the Kempegowda International Airport on March 3 after she was caught smuggling over 14 kg of gold from Dubai. However, in her letter from the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail, she insisted that she was detained inside the plane itself before it disembarked, which contradicts official reports. The letter, submitted as part of the jail memo, includes claims of ill-treatment. Ms Rao claimed she was slapped several times, threatened to reveal her father’s identity and forced to sign blank papers. She alleged she was being framed to save more influential persons involved in the smuggling network.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have also joined the investigation. On Friday, the Special Court for Economic Offences in Bengaluru rejected Ms Rao’s bail plea. “In this case, accused No. 1 (Ranya Rao) having a UAE resident identity card and a history of travelling to Dubai on 27 occasions since January 2025 is another factor which does not prompt the court to grant discretionary relief of grant of bail,” Special Judge Vishwanath C Goudar said. The court said the alleged crime has a serious impact on the country’s economy given the amount of gold smuggled.

It cited preliminary findings that suggest Ms Rao concealed the gold bars by taping them to her body, stuffing them in her jeans pockets and even hiding them in her shoes. The DRI has estimated the evasion of customs duty and penalty at Rs 4.83 crore, far above the legal limit of Rs 50 lakh under the Customs Act. The state had initially ordered a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into the protocol breach at the airport.

However, the order was withdrawn within 24 hours, leading to speculation about political influence. Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara defended the decision, saying that since the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) was already handling the case, a parallel police investigation was unnecessary.

Following the DRI’s complaint, the CBI has launched an independent probe into the alleged role of unidentified public servants in facilitating the smuggling operation.

On March 6, just days after Ms Rao’s arrest, two foreign nationals – one from Oman and the other from the UAE – were caught smuggling 21.28 kg of gold through Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The DRI believes these cases are interlinked and are part of a larger gold smuggling syndicate operating from Dubai.

The DRI said, “The possibility of involvement of unknown public servants of the Government of India and unknown others in such a coordinated network needs to be investigated.” Following Ms Rao’s arrest, sleuths raided her residence and recovered gold jewellery worth Rs 2.06 crore and cash worth Rs 2.67 crore. The ED has initiated a money laundering probe to unravel the financial transactions linked to the case.