Ranya claims she was mule and made only one trip to bring gold; Agencies remain sceptical

Ranya Rao, caught smuggling gold at Kempegowda International Airport, claimed innocence, but agencies suspect syndicate involvement.

Ranya Rao, 34, who was caught smuggling 14.2 kgs of gold at Kempegowda International Airport on March 3, has claimed that she was a mule and it was the first time she had brought gold from Dubai. However, multiple agencies part of the probe seem to be sceptical of this theory. They suspect that she was part of a “coordinated smuggling syndicate, possibly operating out of Dubai” and this was not her first trip.

In her statement to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) after her arrest, part of the remand application submitted to the court, accessed by The Hindu, Ranya has claimed that she got a bunch of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls from foreign numbers over two weeks preceding her trip to Dubai and a man “of African-American accent” said he would come in a white gown and hand over gold to her at Gate A Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport, as per which he did. She claimed he was over 6-feet tall and wheatish in colour.

Ranya further claimed that she saw YouTube videos to learn how to hide the gold handed over to her - 12 gold bars and 5 cut pieces, which she hid over her body using a crepe bandage and adhesive tape, around her waist and on her calf muscles, in her front pockets and shoes. She claimed she was instructed to dump gold in an autorickshaw at a traffic signal at the end of the service road outside KIA. She also claimed that this was the first time she had ever got gold from Dubai. 

However, her arrest memo, accessed by The Hindu, shows that DRI recovered two Dubai customs declarations dated November 13, 2024, and December 20, 2024, in the name of “Harshavardini Ranya” from her residence on Lavelle Road during their search. This showed that she had purchased gold from Dubai in the recent past, declared to Dubai Customs that she intended to travel to Geneva with the said gold, but diverted and came to India. 

Sources also pointed out that Ranya had made at least 27 trips to Dubai in just over a year, including four trips in 15 days, despite not having any business interests or family there. In her statement, she claimed she was a “freelance real estate agent” in Dubai.

Sources said that her statement, while claiming that an unknown person instructed her to become a mule to carry the consignment from Dubai to Bengaluru, remains silent as to why she agreed to abide by it.

Agencies also point to ₹2.67 crore cash and jewellery worth ₹2.06 crore recovered from her residence and say that mules are usually those who take big risks for a small amount, and Ranya, as the step daughter of a senior IPS officer and a film actor with a big cache of cash at home, did not fit into that profile.