The government action follows two days after the Central Bureau of Investigation assumed the 14-kg gold smuggling case that has dominated headlines for over a week. The police in the Karnataka government have been withdrawn from investigating the Ranya Rao gold smuggling case.
The state police’s Criminal Investigation Department or CID was first asked to probe the protocol breach at the Bengaluru International Airport. The Home Ministry has now withdrawn the order of investigation. The government action follows just two days after the Central Bureau of Investigation swooped on the 14-kg gold smuggling case, which dominated headlines for over a week.
Caught with 14 kgs of gold concealed inside clothes and in bandages when she was apprehended at Bengaluru’s international airport on March 3, she has been sent to 14-day jail custody after questioning by the state police.
The 33-year-old has alleged that she was “verbally tortured” and not permitted to sleep when she was in police custody for the initial 24 hours. Her attorney alleged that there were several protocol breaches at the time of her arrest, including the one in which she was meant to be read her rights.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence or DRI, which is also probing the smuggling case, stated today that massive money was organized and routed through hawala and they are probing that route. It indicates that a syndicate was in operation,” the DRI stated and also asserted that the smuggling was being carried out with the assistance of the state Protocol Officer.
Ranya Rao, they stated, had gone through the immigration and the Green Channel with the assistance of the State Protocol Officer. We (the DRI) had apprehended there once she cleared the Green Channel, She had no desire to declare what she was carrying,” the DRI counsel further stated.
