ED files charge sheet as investigators unravel a year-long gold laundering syndicate stretching from foreign shores to domestic jewellers
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering charge sheet against Kannada actress Ranya Rao and two associates ,businessman Tarun Konduru and gold dealer Sahil Sakariya Jain before a special court in Bengaluru, pulling back the curtain on an elaborate gold smuggling operation that ran for over a year.
According to the ED, the syndicate illegally imported 127.28 kg of 24-carat gold worth approximately ₹102.55 crore between March 2024 and March 2025. The smuggled metal was quietly absorbed into the domestic market through a chain of handlers and jewellers, with sale proceeds laundered via hawala networks and layered through multiple bank accounts to disguise their criminal origin.
The case unravelled when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence intercepted Rao stepdaughter of a DGP-rank officer at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport in March 2025, recovering over 14 kg of concealed gold. Subsequent searches at her residence yielded ₹2.67 crore in unaccounted cash. The ED has already attached assets worth ₹34.12 crore in her name.
The CBI and DRI are separately investigating the broader conspiracy.
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