Bengaluru: Investigations into the gold smuggling racket involving Sandalwood actor Ranya Rao led the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) into arresting a Ballari-based jeweller identified as Sahil Sakariya Jain.
Sahil has been charged with helping Ranya, who was arrested at Kempegowda International Airport on March 3 while smuggling in 14.2 kg of gold, to pass the gold on to him after she had allegedly smuggled a consignment into the country on an earlier occasion.
After Ranya and her business partner Tarun Kondaru Raju, Sahil is the third person to be arrested in connection with the gold smuggling racket.
A resident of Brahmin’s Street in Ballari, Sahil is the son of businessman Mahendra Kumar Jain. He came under the DRI scanner after the sleuths found that Ranya had communicated with him frequently before and after her foreign trips. Ranya, too, had reportedly spoken about Sahil during interrogation.
Sahil was produced at the judge’s residence in National Games Village in the early hours of Wednesday and was remanded in DRI custody for four days.
DRI told the court: “Sahil Sakariya Jain assisted and abetted in the smuggling of gold, weighing around 14.5 kg and valued at Rs 11.55 crore, into India, which appears to have been smuggled into the country by Ranya Rao on January 11 this year. Sahil’s act resulted in a loss of Rs 4.46 crore to the exchequer. Also, from his statement, it becomes evident that he assisted and abetted Ranya Rao on two other occasions.”
According to DRI, Sahil’s involvement was first discovered through scrutiny of digital evidence and later from Ranya’s voluntary disclosures.
“The WhatsApp chats available on your mobile phones reveal that you have been actively involved in facilitating the transfer of money to Dubai and also assisted in disposing of the smuggled gold. Though you claim that you yourself weren’t involved in the sale of the gold, digital evidence points towards your full involvement,” the arrest memo addressing Sahil read.