Actor Ranya Rao, Caught With 14 Kg Gold In 2025, Gets VIP Temple 'Darshan'

Kannada actor Ranya Rao, who was caught smuggling gold at Bengaluru Airport last year, is back in the spotlight. This time, over her visit to a temple and the preferential treatment she reportedly got during the visit with her father and other family members. 

Rao visited the famous Hasanamba Temple in Karnataka's Hassan district on October 31 along with her stepfather, retired Director General of Police K. Ramachandra Rao. 

She reportedly arrived at the temple in a protocol vehicle, a facility which is provided to her stepfather, and offered prayers to Goddess Hasanamba.

Hassan, Karnataka: Actress Ranya Rao, an accused in the gold smuggling case and currently out on bail, visited Hassanamba Temple in Hassan with her family. She was reportedly provided a protocol vehicle for darshan https://t.co/zrrhCG5bfm

— IANS (@ians_india) October 31, 2026

The VIP treatment drew criticism from the public, which later turned into a political slugfest. 

Bharatiya Janata Party MLC CT Ravi criticised the Congress-led Karnataka government over the protocol arrangements for Rao and her family. 

"Perhaps, in the view of the state government, Ranya Rao is a VIP. The Congress government may have considered her a VIP," he was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.

Rao was arrested in March 2025 after she was caught carrying 14.2 kg of gold, some of which she was wearing, and the rest was concealed in her clothes. Later, it was discovered that the actor was reportedly part of a smuggling network and took hefty commissions to smuggle goods from Dubai to Bengaluru, with a commission of approximately Rs 4-5 lakh for smuggling a kilogram of gold. 

She was named in the Enforcement Directorate's chargesheet in the Rs 102 crore gold smuggling case earlier this year. The chargesheet alleged that the syndicate smuggled over 127 kg of gold in a year to India and disposed of it in the domestic market through a network of handlers and jewellers.

Rao was fined Rs 102 crore by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in connection with the case.