New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate Wednesday conducted raids across 16 places in Karnataka, including some educational institutions controlled by Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara.
The searches were linked to a gold smuggling case linked to Kannada actor Harshavardhini Ranya, also known as Ranya Rao, after investigators unearthed key players and the alleged flow of illicit funds into the gold smuggling network.
On 3 March, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had arrested Rao upon arrival from Dubai at the Bengaluru International airport. She was taken into custody with 14.2 kg of gold, valued at Rs 12.56 crore, followed by the recovery of more gold worth Rs 5 crore at her residence in Bengaluru during subsequent searches. Later that month, the agency also arrested a gold trader from Ballari, who had allegedly carried out hawala transactions and aided her in the operation.
Based on DRI inputs, the Central Bureau of Investigation had registered a case to probe a larger syndicate smuggling gold into India.
Sources in the federal probe agency said Wednesday’s operations were limited to hawala operators, accommodation entry operators, and an educational trust, which had paid an unaccounted Rs 40 lakh to settle Ranya Rao’s credit card bill of Rs 40 lakh.
“An educational trust has diverted funds and made a payment of Rs 40 lakh towards the credit card bill of Ranya Rao, allegedly on the instructions of an influential individual. No supporting vouchers or documentation were found to substantiate this payment,” an ED official said.
Responding to ED’s action, Parameshwara has said that he is prepared to cooperate in the investigation.
“Yesterday, ED officers visited our institutions—Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Siddhartha Medical College at Tumkur, Siddhartha Medical College at Begur and Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education. I instructed my staff to cooperate with them and give whatever information they asked for… They questioned our accounts section. The search is still going on,” the Congress MLA told reporters Thursday.
“Being a person who believes in the law of the country, whatever comes out of the verification or search, I am prepared to cooperate.”
The Congress party, meanwhile, condemned the raids by the agency, alleging that the action resulted from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “nervousness” about the Karnataka government’s achievements over the years.
“The INC condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the ED raids on the Home Minister of Karnataka. Dr. G. Parameshwara is one of the senior-most political leaders of the country who has made great contributions to the cause of education, particularly that of the weaker sections of society,” the party’s communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh wrote on X Wednesday evening.
“The ED actions undertaken at the behest of the PM himself reflect the politics of harassment, vendetta, and intimidation of which he is the master. The BJP is clearly nervous and worried by the achievements of the Karnataka Govt over the past two years. We will not be silenced. We will continue to hold the PM to account for his multiple failures on multiple fronts,” he added.
However, ED officials maintained that the searches were “purely based on a money trail established primarily in the case so far”, without directly naming Parameshwara.
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Allegations against Rao
Sources in the agency said that Rao and her conduits created parallel tickets for the journey from Dubai and secured customs clearance for the gold consignment for her. However, after clearance, she instead travelled to India with the smuggled gold and evaded agencies like Customs and DRI through VIP protocol measures at the airport.
ThePrint had earlier reported that Rao had come under the DRI scanner for frequent travels to and from Dubai, and that the agency had found that she was misusing the state protocol.
Stepdaughter of a Director General of Police-rank officer in the state, she allegedly used to leverage the officer’s position to contact local officers in an attempt to arrange an official escort home. After the case came to light, the Siddaramaiah-led government sent the officer on compulsory leave and instituted a Special Investigation Team.
According to agency officials, a breakthrough has been achieved in the money laundering investigation. Several key module members had agreed to pay Rao through hawala channels for gold imports from the United Arab Emirates, they said. These smuggled consignments of gold were later sold in the market to jewellers.
They added that the latest action also covered operators who provided records of sham financial transactions and consultation income to Rao to facilitate the gold smuggling racket.
“For example, one of the companies has shown Ranya Rao to be a supplier of construction labour and paid her a few crores of rupees. Similarly, she has also done money laundering through other companies,” the ED official said.
ThePrint reached out to Rao’s lawyer Kiran Javali for a comment via text message. This report will be updates as and when a response is received.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)