BENGALURU: In the backdrop of Opposition parties, especially the BJP, alleging that two ministers in the Congress government are involved in actress Ranya Rao’s gold smuggling case, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and apprised him about the case at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday.
They held a one-on-one meeting for about 20 minutes on the government issuing an order to investigate the role of Ranya’s stepfather Ramachandra Rao, DGP, Karnataka Police Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation.
Additional Chief Secretary Gaurav Gupta will probe how Ranya, being the stepdaughter of the DGP, misused the protocol ‘privilege’. “We issued an order yesterday (Monday) to conduct the probe,” Parameshwara said after meeting the CM.
Later, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar met Siddaramaiah separately and issued a statement that none of his cabinet colleagues were involved in the case.
Taking a dig at him, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka said Shivakumar has given a clean chit to two ministers even before the DRI and CBI started their investigation.
Opposition parties have gathered certain information about the transaction between the accused actress and two ministers. Ranya supposedly revealed this during the interrogation by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, sources said.