Bengaluru, Mar 4: In a major development, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials have taken Kannada film actress Ranya Rao into custody after seizing 14.8 kg of gold from her at the Bengaluru International Airport, sources said on Tuesday.

According to police, the actress was taken into custody on Monday night at the airport after her arrival on an Emirates flight from Dubai. The officers from the DRI had been monitoring the movements of the actress following her frequent trips to Dubai. The actress is a close relative of a serving IPS officer in Karnataka, police said.

Police revealed that the actress wore most of the gold without giving any room for suspicion. She also carried gold bars hidden in clothes. At the airport, she would claim that she is the daughter of the DGP and as soon as she came out, she would call the police personnel for pick up. The police used to drop her home, the preliminary investigations revealed.

The DRI sleuths are verifying whether the police personnel and the IPS officer have any role in the whole episode or the accused misused them. The authorities are also verifying whether she had smuggled gold earlier as well.

Sources said that the DRI got alerted and gathered information on the actress after she visited Dubai four times in the last 15 days and returned to Bengaluru. A team of four officers from the DRI after getting information that the accused actress had boarded the Emirates flight from Dubai, came down to Bengaluru airport and awaited her arrival.

After taking her into custody and seizing the gold, the officers took her to the DRI Headquarters in the HBR locality of Bengaluru and questioned her. Sources stated that she would be produced before a Bengaluru court later on Tuesday.

The authorities are trying to probe whether she is a part of any syndicate. However, an official statement is yet to be made by the department in this regard.

Ranya Rao has acted as a lead actress against Kannada superstar Sudeep in "Maanikya". She has also acted in other South Indian language movies.

More details regarding the case are yet to emerge.

--IANS

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