Janardhana Reddy's associate Bheema Naik arrested following driver's suicide note

Bheema Naik, an officer of the Karnataka Administrative Services, was arrested on Sunday, days after his driver committed suicide, reported NDTV. In a suicide note, the driver, Ramesh Gowda, had accused Naik of laundering black money for mining giant and ex-BJP leader Janardhana Reddy. Naik and his current driver Mohammed were arrested in Gulbarga on Sunday morning. According to the NDTV report, the police have filed a case against Naik for abatement of suicide. The driver is also named in the case. Ramesh Gowda  had claimed that Reddy had converted close to Rs 100 crore of black money into white, paying 20 percent commission to senior government officer. According to his suicide note, Gowda was also receiving regular death threats because he had information on how Reddy had converted his money. [caption id=“attachment_3150918” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Janardhana Reddy. PTI[/caption] Janardhana Reddy had recently come under criticism for the extravagant spending on his daughter’s wedding. The lavish wedding is estimated to have cost Rs 100 crore. Over 50,000 guests had attended the wedding with some big names in Karnataka politics but many from BJP didn’t attend the event. Reddy is a former BJP minister and had faced arrest in the 2012 illegal mining case. He was released on bail last year. He had been actively preparing for his daughter’s wedding soon after released on bail. The high-cost wedding came under criticism as it was held soon after the demonetisation reveal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many leaders were told to keep away from the wedding. According to reports, Reddy spent Rs 500 crore on the wedding. The Income Tax department had visited Reddy’s residence in Bellary after the wedding.