Actor Ranya Rao’s arrest with 15 kg of gold at Bengaluru airport has sparked controversy, with allegations of political affiliations surfacing.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening, you're watching Super 6 here on India Today.
00:04I'm Akshata Anandagopal.
00:06This evening, we're getting you all the updates that are coming in on the investigation in
00:10the Karnataka smuggling racket amid questions, allegations that there are political links
00:17that are coming to the fore now.
00:19We'll be breaking down for you whether Rania Rao, the actor, the daughter of a DGP rank
00:25officer was actually linked to BGP and Congress leaders.
00:29Are both parties in Karnataka guilty of having protected her, shielded her for so long that
00:34she could carry off this kind of a gold heist from Dubai?
00:37We'll be getting you all the details on that once emerged from the investigation and much
00:41more.
00:42Let's begin first as always in this edition of Super 6 with the headlines.
00:50No relief for smuggling accused actor Rania.
00:53Stalin breaks down in court, claims harassment, probe agency says Rania is not cooperating
00:59in investigation.
01:01Political link to nexus now on the lens.
01:10Flashes during champions trophy celebrations near Jawa Masjid in Madhya Pradesh is marked.
01:15Mobs seen vandalizing vehicles, arson, rioting and pelting stones.
01:19Was booked now under the stringent NSA.
01:27Mahawar war.
01:28Aurangzeb escalates.
01:29Maharashtra chief minister backs removing Aurangzeb's tomb, says tomb removal must be
01:34legal.
01:35Shivaji clan science joint chorus.
01:44Massive approval in both houses of Tamil Nadu delimitation and language war.
01:49Dharmendra Pradhan slams opposition charges on NAP.
01:52Stalin hits out, says Pradhan acting arrogantly.
02:01Outrage over a fashion show in Jammu and Kashmir during Ramzan.
02:04Hardliners agitated to a fashion show.
02:06Chief Minister Omar orders inquiry and seeks report in 24 hours even as designers issue
02:11an apology.
02:18New Canada prime minister elect wants to mend ties with India as well as rebuild relationship.
02:24Will India Canada hostilities be a thing of the past now with the change in leadership?
02:29There are opportunities to rebuild the relationships with India.
02:37There needs to be a shared sense of values around that commercial relationship and if
02:42I am prime minister, I look forward to the opportunity to build that.
02:51Rania Rao, the woman who smuggled 15 kilos of gold almost and was caught red-handed in
02:57Bengaluru last week.
02:58Today, as the investigation has progressed, wave access details of her contacts, her alleged
03:04political links and even who her accomplices were with more arrests now being made by the
03:10agencies.
03:11Let's begin first by running you through what happened in court today.
03:15This was just a few hours ago when Rania was produced by authorities.
03:18Her judicial custody has been extended again.
03:21So she will remain behind bars for now.
03:24There was quite some drama that also played out in court today.
03:27You had Rania breaking down in court today claiming she's being harassed.
03:31Let's put out that video from today from outside court in Bengaluru.
03:36This is the first footage of her since her arrest completely in control.
03:41If you look at the full sequence, she seems to be telling people what to do, seemingly
03:45calling the shots, looking 100% fully confident.
03:50Now the allegation she made in court is that she's being mentally harassed, that the questioning
03:55is leading to harassment.
03:57Is this the face then of someone who's being harassed or the face of someone remorseful?
04:01She comes out looking extremely confident, calling the shots, telling the driver where
04:04to go, seated in her Innova car.
04:07Now Rania, but in court, had a completely different picture to paint.
04:11Our reporters were in there and I'll tell you what they told us.
04:14Rania claimed she's being mentally harassed by authorities in custody.
04:18Our reporters in the courtroom said that her voice was trembling, she was struggling to
04:22maintain her calm, her composure.
04:24The judge at this point told her questioning was being videographed, so any sign of any
04:29ill treatment or any harassment would not go unnoticed.
04:33Rania then broke down, got emotional, started crying.
04:36She didn't get any sympathy as she expected perhaps with the judge telling her clearly,
04:40control your emotions.
04:42So let's tell you argument versus argument exactly what happened in court.
04:47Now remember that this is for the extension of a judicial custody.
04:51You had Rania going ahead and claiming that officials have been verbally abusing, harassing
04:57me during interrogation.
04:59Remember she's in judicial custody.
05:00The authorities in court made it very, very clear that there's no harassment whatsoever,
05:05that she is being treated fairly while in custody.
05:09Rania also said that there are documents that are being handed over to me and then I'm being
05:13forced to sign it.
05:15This is not me giving my consent, but I'm being forced to sign documents.
05:19Here too, the authorities made it very clear that no such thing is happening, but they
05:22did reiterate and highlight that so far she's not been cooperative with the investigation,
05:27that any question that they ask is completely being stonewalled by her.
05:31Now she's also claimed that she's being asked to sign these documents and being threatened
05:35with consequences for staying silent, that if she's not diverging all details, she's
05:40going to be in trouble.
05:41So essentially she's claiming she's being threatened constantly.
05:44The authorities in court responded to this saying very clearly that Rania has gone silent
05:50because she refuses to answer any of the questions during interrogation.
05:53Effectively, she's not cooperating with the investigation.
05:57Now according to Rania, officials are trying to pressurize her.
06:01They're taking her to unknown locations, they're threatening, intimidating her, and this clearly
06:06has been shut down again by the authorities.
06:09There's a public prosecutor who maintains very clearly that questioning, interrogation
06:14cannot be deemed as torture at any stage, that it's, there's a vast difference between
06:18the two, that if we seek answers, that is not torture, that's not intimidation.
06:22So you had Rania breaking down in court saying, I'm being mentally harassed, I'm in mental
06:27distress.
06:28She says that the verbal abuse is causing mental distress.
06:32Mental harassment is what's happening.
06:34And here you had also very clearly the public prosecutor saying that any attempt for her
06:39to give a statement is an attempt by Rania's lawyers to speak out and influence her statements.
06:44This happened in court too with a judge reprimanding her lawyer saying, stop speaking, let Rania
06:50speak.
06:51So this is essentially what's played out in court.
06:53Now what you take away from this is that Rania hasn't really been cooperative with the investigation
06:58whatsoever.
06:59She's trying to go ahead and play the victim card.
07:02But very clearly breaking down in court didn't cut any eyes with the judge.
07:06He said very clearly, please control your emotions.
07:09Now as far as the investigation goes, the CBI has taken over the investigation now.
07:15So they're going to be looking into this elaborate smuggling that the need of the hour clearly
07:18because there are high profile names also coming up.
07:21What do I mean?
07:22Let's begin by explaining to you what exactly Rania does.
07:26Yes, she's been caught for smuggling, but interestingly, she's the director of three
07:30companies.
07:31Rania Rao is found to be the director of several companies and that's raised questions about
07:35her business dealings.
07:37Why?
07:38Because let me break down for you what the three companies are.
07:40It's completely bizarre, one not related to the other whatsoever.
07:44First a steel manufacturing company called Siroda or K. Siroda.
07:49This is a steel manufacturing company.
07:51The second company is an agriculture linked firm called Iris Green Private Limited and
07:57then a photography company.
08:00Now this is called Rania Rao Photography Private Limited.
08:02Three companies here with completely different sectors.
08:05They have no connection to one another, steel to agriculture to photography and so you tend
08:09to wonder what really Rania did.
08:11She was an actor.
08:13What's her link to steel manufacturing?
08:15She's also linked to an agriculture linked firm.
08:16She's the director of all of these.
08:19So obviously that raises questions.
08:20Were these firms a front of some kind?
08:23What made Rania an expert in steel manufacturing for her to be a director in this kind of a
08:29firm?
08:30And here's where it gets interesting.
08:32One of these firms, the first one I'm talking about, the K. Siroda firm there, actually
08:36got land allotted from the Karnataka government.
08:39This was a few years ago in 2023 when 12 acres of land was allotted to her firm.
08:44Now 2023, which is why we're showing Baswaraj Bombay.
08:47This was while Baswaraj Bombay was the chief minister.
08:49Here's what's mind blowing about the fact that land was being allotted to her.
08:53This government land was allotted to Rania within months of launching her company.
08:58She registered her company on April 21st, 2022, received the land just nine months after
09:03its launch.
09:04Most of your companies, mind you, struggle for years to obtain land from the Karnataka
09:10authorities.
09:11And yet here you had Rania Rao managing it swiftly, smoothly.
09:15And so there are questions about what kind of political influence did she actually enjoy?
09:20What kind of political influence did she have that she could get land at the snap of her
09:24finger?
09:25And is that what helped her await authorities for so long in her smuggling attempts?
09:29Let's get you all of also the reactions that have come in so far on this.
09:33I also saw, you know, I hailed from Tumkur, because, you know, this was, I was told this
09:44was allotted in January, when BJP was in power.
09:49Let them say so, who has influenced, who has directed or, you know, the committee has taken
10:00a decision.
10:01There is a single window committee in that.
10:04There's so many people are there, senior officers are there, and ministers, ultimately it comes
10:10to the minister.
10:11The fact of the matter is that she is one of the directors of some company and they
10:16had applied and it has gone through the legal channels.
10:23Land audit committee was there and it has cleared it.
10:27And then the final proceedings were done under the presence of the industry minister
10:36at a state level, single window agencies.
10:39It doesn't come to the chief minister.
10:43She is the daughter of a senior police officer.
10:48Her allotment of industrial land is in the year 2022, when BJP was in government.
10:56So if Vijendra knows so much about it, I'm sure he knows which BJP minister has helped
11:01her in getting that land.
11:03To throw out allegations is the easiest thing and the BJP are masters at it.
11:08Now if Vijendra says that ministers are involved, then he must come out with names.
11:12When it comes to the smuggling case, when she was caught doing a crime, during the crime,
11:18she has tried to contact some congress ministers, trying to use their influence and try to get
11:23out of the problem she got into.
11:26And now it is almost in the public domain that two ministers are involved in that.
11:30They have tried to help her and they are trying to help her.
11:34Now the CBI has taken on the case, surely something solid will come out of it and we'll
11:40surely know who is behind all these things, who is behind this gold smuggling and related
11:46issues also.
11:50So what exactly are the political connections here?
11:52Let's just break down for you all the names that have emerged in the last one week in
11:56this investigation.
11:57At the heart of it of course is Rania Rao herself, actor, caught red-handed with all
12:02of that gold, nearly 15 kilos of gold with her.
12:05Her stepfather is a DGP rank officer, Ramachandra Rao and there are questions also about his
12:11clean image because in 2014 his name had been dragged into a Havala case in Mysuru.
12:16He was the IG Southern Range then.
12:18So what about the political links?
12:20There is one which is the former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
12:23Why has his name come up?
12:25Essentially because of the fact that in 2023 you had government land being allotted in
12:29a matter of nine months for Rania Rao and Basavaraj Bommai has defended that decision
12:33saying it was routine, nothing really wrong in that.
12:37Now there's a question mark about whether Congress leaders also are involved.
12:40We don't have names just yet but this has come to the fore only because of the BJP's
12:45allegation.
12:46The Karnataka BJP chief has alleged that when Rania was in trouble, when she got caught
12:50at the Bengaluru airport, she made calls to two Congress ministers and so he claims that
12:55Congress is involved.
12:56He hasn't given any names.
12:58That's something at this point that needs to be investigated.
13:01And then you have the fact that you have several police officials, you have several Netas whose
13:06numbers were reportedly in Rania's digital devices, her phone, laptops, all of that is
13:12with the authorities.
13:13When they went through it, they found contact details of both top leading police officials
13:18considering her stepfather's a DGP rank officer maybe and then Netas too.
13:23What is the influence that they managed to really have on this entire investigation and
13:27is that how she got away scot-free for months together?
13:31So these are the links that have allegedly come to the fore that's leading to politics.
13:36Away from the politics, another big arrest has been made in this very case.
13:40Tarun Raj, supposedly an accomplice in this entire racket has now been arrested formally.
13:46He was called in for questioning earlier today.
13:49He not just accompanied Rania, several of these Dubai troops were allegedly gold was
13:53being smuggled but also was found to be in her list of frequently contacted.
13:58Like I said, her digital devices are now with authorities.
14:01So we'll have to see really if one more big fish in this entire smuggling racket has been
14:06nabbed because he's formally been arrested.
14:09I'd like to bring in Sagar Raj to join us live from Bengaluru with more details on what's
14:13transpired in the last 24 hours and the biggest headline, no doubt Sagar, is what happened
14:17in the court a few hours ago where Rania again tried to play the victim card, got emotional,
14:22reportedly broke down, started saying I'm being harassed and then cut to a few moments
14:27later she comes out of court looking completely in control.
14:33Absolutely, the visual speaks everything because when she stepped out of the court, she was
14:37normal.
14:38She was feeling that way.
14:39She needed to go.
14:40And if you if you notice that the council of the DRA that that is a special public prosecutor
14:45has categorically mentioned much before she even step inside the court hall, the council
14:50of Rania Rao have advised her to speak in this way, saying that they have been harassed
14:55her.
14:56And if you notice the council of DRA has also explained that asking question to her, asking
15:02specific question to her is not harassment because if she knows answer for a few questions,
15:07she says that yes or no or something else.
15:10If they produce some kind of evidence, for an example, a ticket or evidence to prove
15:14that she was getting gold, evidence to prove that she was robbing so and so person, evidence
15:19to prove that she was calling so and so person and she was giving money or something like
15:23that, the transaction.
15:24When they show specific evidence and ask her what you have to say about that, that's when
15:29she keeps quiet.
15:30She was not cooperating with the investigating officer.
15:34So that is the reason the officer said that when we produce specific evidence to ask her
15:40questions, she refused to answer.
15:41She distanced herself and she keeps quiet and she is not cooperating.
15:44And this is not harassment.
15:46These are the simple question which has been asked.
15:48And the council has also made it clear that if you require, we can also give the video
15:53because the entire interrogation was done under a camera lens.
15:57Everything has been recorded.
15:58We have not harassed her.
16:01And she said that she was mentally tortured by asking questions, but not physically.
16:05And she broke down inside the hall.
16:07Judge who heard that went on to say, went on to advise her saying that if you require,
16:12you can file a petition and we can take the video footage and we can examine that how
16:16she was being questioned.
16:17Everything, everything is done in front of cameras and that's very clearly reiterated
16:21in court.
16:22So there's no question of any sort of harassment essentially that can happen.
16:24Thanks a guy for those details.
16:26We will track the latest that comes in on that investigation.
16:29I want to quickly focus on another aspect.
16:31Why are there so many gold smuggling cases from Dubai?
16:34Why did Rania choose to do this?
16:35Well, for starters, there's a big difference in gold prices.
16:3922 carat gold prices in Dubai is 77,550 rupees.
16:46This is for 10 grams that we've taken and these are today's rates.
16:49Now similarly, if you look at the previous one, let's pull out in fact the previous plate
16:53to this, which talks about really those prices and what it looks like right now.
16:57Over 80,000 essentially for 10 grams in India.
17:03We look at also the 24 carat gold prices.
17:06The price difference is over 5,000 between Dubai and India prices.
17:11Now Rania allegedly smuggled 14.8 kilos of gold.
17:17So those are the price differences of 22 carat versus 24 carat gold.
17:20Let's look at what happens.
17:22This is again for 10 grams.
17:24So let's talk about what it means for 14.8 kilos of gold.
17:27That's how much Rania allegedly smuggled on the day that she was caught.
17:30The cost of that based on today's prices are 12.38 crores in Dubai versus in India.
17:37It's 13.01 crores because like I said, it's a price difference between smuggling gold
17:42from Dubai meant a profit of about 63.44 lakh in one trip.
17:47Let's delve deeper and talk about how much of a difference that made overall for Rania.
17:51Remember we told you that this year alone in 2025 in a matter of two months, Rania had
17:56made 27 trips and each of these trips she allegedly brought back somewhere between 14
18:01to 15 kilos of gold.
18:03So if we keep the same amount of 14.8 kilos of gold, it would have meant a profit of over
18:1017 crores for Rania in a matter of just two months.
18:15How much really she earned from this?
18:18So why is gold so much cheaper from Dubai?
18:20We told you that as well and explained to you the difference.
18:23But if you're looking at bringing in gold from Dubai, one kg is a lot for those who've
18:29been living in UAE for six months and then are coming back.
18:32Then they have an exception of bringing in one kilo.
18:34This duty-free import of 20 grams for men, it varies.
18:38For women, it's 40 grams.
18:40Again, for children also, it's 40 grams much like for women.
18:43So it's interesting that you see this kind of very, very stringent rules.
18:47Why is that?
18:47Because of the rampant smuggling that happens because of the kinds of Rania actually indulging
18:53in this kind of smuggling because of the fact that gold rates vary so much between India
18:58and Dubai.
18:59Now the showdown over language imposition as is being said by Tamil Nadu political parties
19:05continues in parliament now as DMK MP Kanimori has moved a privilege motion against Minister
19:11Dharmendra Pradhan.
19:12She says that the ministers misled the house saying that Tamil Nadu government initially
19:17agreed to sign the MOU for the PMSRI scheme but later took a U-turn.
19:21This was a statement that Dharmendra Pradhan, I beg your pardon, had in fact made in parliament
19:26today as the HRD minister, as the education minister.
19:29And Kanimori says that that is a lie.
19:31So she's now moved a privilege motion against the minister saying that he should go ahead
19:38and retract that comment.
19:40She's called it incorrect.
19:41She said this is a misleading statement.
20:11This is the future of Tamil Nadu students.
20:13They are self-interesting.
20:15They are un-democratic, uncivilized.
20:17They are debarring the right of Tamil Nadu students to have a pan-Indian education model.
20:24Very pained and hurt that the minister in his reply in parliament today has called the
20:30members of parliament, the Tamil Nadu government and the people of Tamil Nadu uncivilized.
20:36The minister from Tamil Nadu also was there in the delegation and we had clearly said
20:41that we have issues with the NEP.
20:44We cannot accept it in full because three-language policy is not acceptable to Tamil Nadu.
20:50And the truth is, the CM of Tamil Nadu has written to the minister and the prime minister
21:01saying that we cannot, we have issues with the NEP.
21:07It cannot be accepted in total.
21:11I'm not going to retire.