The driver of a Karnataka Administrative Service officer has committed suicide, alleging “mental torture” for being privy to information that Bharatiya Janata Party leader Janardhan Reddy’s had converted black money worth Rs 100 crore to white. In a suicide note, he also claimed that the mining baron had paid a 20% commission to Bheema Nayaka, the special land acquisition officer for whom he worked in Bengaluru, ANI reported on Wednesday.
Ramesh Gowda committed suicide by consuming poison in the state’s Maddur town, according to News18. He has accused Reddy and Nayak of harassing him and delivering death threats for being aware of Reddy’s alleged corrupt practices. The KAS officer allegedly helped Reddy covert the money needed for his daughter’s extravagant wedding. The police have registered a case against Nayak and Mohammed, another one of his drivers, the report said.
In the suicide note, Gowda claimed that Reddy and BJP MP Sriramulu had met Nayak a number of times at a five-star hotel in Bengaluru before the November 16 wedding. He also alleged that in addition to the 20% commission, the officer wanted the former Karnataka minister to help him get a ticket to contest the 2018 state Assembly elections.
On November 21, investigators of the Income Tax Department had raided the offices of Reddy’s mining firm. His Obulapuram Mining Company had come under the taxman’s radar after a Bengaluru-based advocate had claimed that the mining baron had allegedly spent more than Rs 500 crore on the wedding and had sought to know how Reddy had funded the wedding, especially after the Centre demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8.
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