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The third accused in the high-profile gold smuggling case, Sahil Sakariya Jain, who has been arrested and interrogated by DRI officials, has so far disposed of gold weighing 49.6 kilograms worth Rs 40 Cr since November last year that was handed over to him by Ranya Rao after she smuggled the gold to Bengaluru from Dubai, the DRI has learned while interrogating Sahil.
DRI officials have procured evidence by way of transactional statements against Sahil since November 2024, who had made Hawala transactions to Dubai for the purchase of gold and also for making payments to Ranya for smuggling the foreign gold to India. Meanwhile, Sahil was charging Rs 55K as his commission per transaction, a DRI investigation has revealed.
According to the Remand Application submitted by DRI to the Special Court of Economic Offences – accessed by NewsX revealed that Sahil Jain had come in contact with Ranya Rao in November 2024 and since then, he had been involved in disposing the gold smuggled by Ranya Rao into Bengaluru from Dubai.
Delving deeper into the probe, the DRI has learnt that Sahil who had disposed nearly 50 kg of gold since November 2024 – have made Hawala transactions of Rs 38.4 Cr to Dubai for the purchase of gold and Rs 1.7 Cr of Hawala transaction by way of payments to Ranya Rao for her services in the syndicate. The DRI suspect that this Rs 1.7 Cr was a part of the 2.7 crore that was recovered from Ranya Rao’s residence on Lavelle Road in Bengaluru on March 4th when it was searched and raided by DRI soon after her arrest at the Kempegowda International Airport on the evening of March 3rd.
November 2024
The DRI in its Remand Application to the court stated that in November 2024, Sahil had disposed 8.9 kg of gold worth Rs 6.8 Cr from Ranya after he had made Hawala transactions of Rs 6.5 Cr to Dubai for the purchase of gold and Rs 32 lakh was paid through Hawala channels to Ranya Rao.
December 2024
During the month of December, Sahil had disposed gold weighing 12.6 kg worth Rs 9.9 Cr – he received from Ranya Rao after making Hawala transactions of Rs 9.6 Cr to Dubai and the rest of the money he had made payments to Ranya Rao after taking his commission of Rs 55,000 per transaction.
January 2025
On January 11th, Sahil had disposed off 14.5 kg of gold worth Rs 11.5 Cr. Hawala transactions by Sahil were made to Dubai for Rs 9.6 Cr. Ranya Rao was paid Rs 55 lakh through a Hawala channel by Sahil, probe revealed.
February 2025
In February 2025, Sahil Jain had sold around 13.5 Kg of gold worth Rs 11.8 Cr. Sahil had made Hawala transactions of Rs 11.2 Cr to Dubai and Rs 55 lakh to Ranya Rao – keeping his commission, documents submitted with the court reveals.
Sahil Jain’s DRI custody had ended on Wednesday. He was produced before the magistrate of the Special Court of Economic Offences, who remanded him to judicial custody for seven days.
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