Bengaluru: Actor Ranya Rao has allegedly told Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths that she received an anonymous phone call on March 1, asking her to pick up gold outside the Dubai airport a couple of days later. News channel CNN-News 18 claims to have accessed this information from the Agency exclusively.
Rao was arrested on March 3, after landing at Bengaluru airport in an Emirates flight from Dubai. She was allegedly carrying over 14 kg of gold, strapped to her waist and calfs, and inside her shoes and trouser pockets.
The actor has allegedly told the DRI that she received the gold at Terminal 3 of the Dubai airport, packed in a thick tarpaulin, plastic-like packet. She had been instructed to hand over the gold to someone after she reached Bengaluru.
In anticipation, Ranya had allegedly purchased a roll of adhesive tape from a store near Dubai airport. She was carrying a pair of scissors in her handbag, which she planned to throw away before the security check. She apparently carried the tarpaulin packet to the washroom and opened it. There were 12 gold bars inside, packed in three separate packets. There was another packet with pieces of gold. These she placed inside the soles of her shoes and in her trouser pockets.
According to CNN-News 18, Ranya then proceeded to cut the adhesive tape to size with the scissors and then pasted the gold on her waist and calf. Finally, she wrapped tissue paper from the washroom around the gold to evade detection at Bengaluru. There was no risk in Dubai as carrying gold to other countries is not forbidden there.
Ranya apparently claimed that she had gone through videos on YouTube to learn how to conceal gold on the body. She claimed that she passed security checks at Dubai after ditching the scissors in the dustbin, and boarded the flight.