BENGALURU: The Headquarter Investigative Unit-II of Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in New Delhi has provisionally attached immovable properties of Rs 34.12 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in a case related to the transnational gold smuggling and laundering of its proceeds by the popular Kannada actress Harshavardini Ranya alias Ranya Rao and her associates.
The ED has provisionally attached four properties of equivalent value belonging to Rao. These include a residential house in Victoria Layout, a residential plot in Arkavathi Layout, industrial land in Tumakuru, and agricultural land in Anekal Taluk, with a combined fair market value of Rs 34.12 crore.
The attachment has been carried out to prevent concealment or alienation of the tainted assets and to secure the proceeds of crime.
The investigation revealed that Rao, along with Tarun Konduru Raju and others, orchestrated an operation for smuggling gold into India. Gold was procured from suppliers based in Dubai, Uganda, and other countries, and payments were made through hawala channels in cash, thereby circumventing legal financial systems.
False customs declarations were filed in Dubai, fraudulently declaring the destination of gold shipments as Switzerland or the USA, while the actual destination of the gold smugglers was India. Dual sets of travel documents were used, one for the declared export destination and the other for their actual arrival in India.
It revealed that the smuggled gold was then sold within India in cash to jewellers and other local entities, and the proceeds were laundered through further hawala remittances abroad to finance repeat consignments for smuggling more gold into India.
Further investigation is in progress to trace the remaining proceeds of crime.
The probe began after a FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, following a complaint by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.