ED attaches assets worth over Rs 34 crore of Kannada actor Ranya Rao
New Delhi/Bengaluru, Jul 4 (PTI): Assets worth more than Rs 34 crore of Kannada actor Ranya Rao have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a gold smuggling-linked money-laundering case, officials said on Friday.
A residential house in Victoria Layout and a residential plot in Arkavathi Layout in Bengaluru, an industrial land in Tumkur and an agricultural land in Anekal taluk have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added.
These assets have a combined fair market value of Rs 34.12 crore, the officials said.
The federal probe agency had filed a PMLA case, taking cognisance of a CBI and DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) complaint into a larger gold-smuggling racket in India, including the case of Rao.
Rao, whose original name is Harshavardini Ranya, was arrested on March 3 at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after she arrived from Dubai. Acting on a tip-off, DRI officials detained her and recovered 14.2 kg of gold bars valued at more than Rs 12.56 crore from her possession.
The actor's "involvement" in generating, possessing and circulating proceeds of crime was further corroborated by her digital footprint, including invoices, export declarations, foreign-remittance records and recorded chats, establishing her active role in the smuggling syndicate, the officials said.
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8 dead, dozens wounded in Russian strike on Ukraine's Odesa port
Kyiv (AP): Eight people were killed and 27 wounded in a Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa, southern Ukraine, late on Friday, Ukraine's Emergency Service said on Saturday morning.
Some of the wounded were on a bus at the epicentre of the overnight strike, the service said in a Telegram post. Trucks caught fire in the parking lot, and cars were also damaged.
The port was struck with ballistic missiles, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa region.
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Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces hit a Russian warship and other facilities with drones, Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement on Saturday.
The nighttime attack on Friday hit the Russian warship “Okhotnik,” according to the statement posted to the Telegram messaging app.
The ship was patrolling in the Caspian Sea near an oil and gas production platform. The extent of the damage is still being clarified, the statement added.
A drilling platform at the Filanovsky oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea was also hit. The facility is operated by Russian oil giant Lukoil. Ukrainian drones also struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
