The Enforcement Directorate, which raided several places in Karnataka in the gold smuggling saga, on Thursday filed a money laundering case against actress Ranya Rao, who was arrested for allegedly smuggling gold on March 4 at the Bangalore airport.

According to sources, the central agency carried out searches at 8 places across Karnataka as part of the investigations.

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The DRI, which came into the picture in the beginning after she was arrested, also conducted raids at several places in Bengaluru in connection with the probe. These properties relate to Ranya Rao’s husband, Jatin Vijaykumar Hukkeri. Now, her husband had also moved the court against coercive action against him, saying that he did not have knowledge of his wife’s illegal activities.

According to reports, Ranya Rao is believed to have bought her Dubai flight tickets with her husband’s credit card.

Now, there are three central agencies that are probing the case, DRI, the CBI probing the wider smuggling network and the ED that is looking into the hawala angle. Ranya Rao was arrested on March 4, when she was attempting to smuggle in 14.2 kg of gold bars, strapped onto her body, concealed by the dress she wore.

It was her frequent Dubai trips that brought her into the radar of the officials. After she was apprehended, officials searched her home and seized gold jewellery worth Rs 2.06 crore and cash totalling Rs 2.67 crore.

It is suspected that Ranya Rao was part of a smuggling network and used to get a commission of Rs 4-5 lakh per kg of gold smuggled. She is said to have told the investigators that she got the gold at Dubai airport from a person inside the dining lounge and later went to the washroom to hide the gold on her person, inside her dress.

After the flight landed in Bengaluru, she got through the airport security with the help of a protocol officer, who is suspected to be involved in the smuggling activity. Acting on a tip off, a DRI team was waiting at the exit, which nabbed her when she was near the exit.

She is at present lodged in the custody of DRI till March 24.