The Mandya District Police on Sunday arrested Karnataka Administrative Service officer Bheema Naik in connection with the suicide of his driver, Ramesh Gowda, reported ANI. Gowda had committed suicide alleging “mental torture” for being privy to information that Bharatiya Janata Party leader Janardan Reddy had converted his black money worth Rs 100 crore to white.

In his suicide letter, Gowda had claimed that Naik helped Reddy convert his black money into white before his daughter’s wedding on November 16. In return, the KAS officer, who was given 20% commission for this, asked for a ticket to contest the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, Gowda wrote. Since then, he was receiving death threats for being aware of Reddy’s alleged corrupt practices, Gowda said.

Reddy was the main accused in the 2010-11 illegal mining scam in Karnataka for which he was serving a 40-month sentence in jail. He was released on conditional bail in January, 2015. Reddy got embroiled in a new controversy last month when he spent over Rs 500 crore for his daughter’s wedding on November 16 despite the ongoing cash crunch in the country following the Centre’s demonetisation move. Income Tax officials had raided Reddy’s office on November 21.