How Ranya Rao was duped by a Ugandan agent| India Information
Almost two years earlier than Ranya Rao was arrested by the Directorate of Income Intelligence (DRI) on the Bengaluru airport for smuggling gold, the Kannada actor and her affiliate have been cheated of ₹2 crore by a Ugandan gold agent, officers have revealed.
In March 2025, Rao was arrested from the Bengaluru airport after she returned from Dubai allegedly with a consignment of 14-kg of gold value ₹12.56 crore hid on her physique.
In a chargesheet filed final month, DRI officers stated Rao and her associates smuggled 127.28 kg of gold valued at ₹102.55 crore into India between March 2024 and March 2025. The gold was later offered within the home market via a community of handlers and jewellers.
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Officers have now revealed that Rao and her affiliate, Tarun Konduru Raju, tried sourcing gold from suppliers, primarily based in African nations, together with Uganda, earlier than resorting to smuggling the prized metallic from Dubai.
A ‘Ugandan agent’ and ₹2 crore fraud
An official conscious of the probe informed HT that Rao and Raju tried to supply gold from suppliers in African nationsincluding Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
The duo additionally opened an organization referred to as Vira Diamonds Buying and selling LLC in Dubai in 2023 to facilitate the switch. Dubai was supposed to be the transit and buying and selling hub.
“They have been suggested that African mines have been the first supply of gold for Dubai’s markets in order that they tried to immediately procure it from Africa,” the official stated, citing the chargesheet.
Rao and her affiliate bought in contact with a Uganda-based agent, Ben, and the 2 sides agreed to an preliminary 5 kg trial, which was to be adopted by a 50 kg contract.
The duo additionally paid ₹25,000 (round 23.5 lakh) upfront, adopted by two separate funds of round $10,000 every ( ₹9.39 lakh). Nonetheless, the Uganda-based agent did not ship any gold.
On January 1, 2024, Raju travelled to Uganda metropolis Kampala to satisfy the agent. He was proven the gold and requested for an extra cost of ₹1.7 crore to launch the consignment.
“Rao was coordinating from Dubai to rearrange money and hand it over to Ben’s affiliate in Dubai. Raju finally found that it was a rip-off, leading to a loss exceeding ₹2 crore,” the official stated.
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Enforcement Directorate (ED) additionally claimed to have recovered the WhatsApp chats that confirmed the ‘proof’ of funds. Nonetheless, there wasn’t sufficient “materials proof to substantiate the alleged rip-off”, a second official stated.
Three methods to smuggle gold
After getting duped of ₹2 crore, Rao and Raju resorted to an identical enterprise in Kenya, however that too was aborted resulting from comparable fraud, a 3rd official stated.
The 2 even sought assist from Kenyan officers on the fraud, however there was no decision, which is after they determined towards sourcing gold immediately from Africa, as per officers.
After aborting Uganda and Kenya operations, they resorted to buying gold immediately withing Dubai’s native market from African sellers primarily based in Dubai’s largest gold market- the Deira gold souk.
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“By early 2024, they related with African gold sellers in Dubai who supplied restricted portions at reductions, basically tapping into African-origin gold that had already reached Dubai. These Dubai-based suppliers insisted on money funds and refused financial institution transfers, as is widespread in illicit bullion trades,” the official stated.
The probe towards the 2 have discovered an “organised” and “structured” mechanism, involving the procurement of gold overseas, unlawful import into India, cash-based disposal and subsequent laundering of proceeds via hawala and banking channels, was happening.
The authorities have connected property value ₹34 crore throughout the investigation.
(With inputs from Neeraj Chauhan)
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