Ramesh Gowda, the driver of KAS officer Bheema Nayak, who allegedly killed himself after being harassed over his knowledge of mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy’s purported black money dealings, left behind a detailed suicide note.
In his note, Ramesh outlined a web of connections across which crores of rupees were laundered. The note implicates a number of figures including Bheema Nayak, Janardhana Reddy, BJP MP Sriramulu and two judges named Manjunatha Swamy and Narayana Swamy.
These are the details of Ramesh Gowda’s suicide note:
On October 28, Gali Janardhana Reddy met BJP leader Sriramulu at Parijata Guest House, where they held talks about contesting the Hagaribommanahalli constituency in the 2018 Assembly elections, and Janardhan Reddy agreed to pay Rs 25 crore to Sriramulu.
Sriramulu had agreed to help convert Reddy’s black money to white for his daughter’s wedding and they met regularly at Sriramulu’s residence near Woodland Hotel.
Cars with registration numbers KA05 MT 4499 and KA03 MU 8964 were used on these occasions.
Bheema Nayak allegedly told Ramesh Gowda on November 5 that he had converted Rs 25 crore worth black money to white and handed it over to Reddy near Taj Hotel in Bengaluru for Reddy’s daughter’s wedding.
The KAS officer converted demonetised notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 totalling around Rs 100 crores to fresh currency of Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 2,000 denominations. It is not clear from the note who he carried out this conversion for, since the previous point of the note mentions both Janardhan Reddy and Sriramulu.
The note alleges that Ramesh received threats of assault and murder if he were to reveal the information.
Nayak allegedly used Ramesh’s bank accounts to funnel money. The note adds that in one of the transactions there was a difference of amount, which Bheema Nayak and his other driver Mohammed accused Gowda of stealing, and demanded that he give the duo the money.
The note also alleges there were irregularities in Bheema Nayak’s income amounting to Rs 100 crore.
It alleges that Nayak had purchased a bungalow in Belagavi’s Sadashivnagar, 20 guntas of land near Bombu Bazaar in Hagaribommanahalli taluk, 30 acres of agricultural land in Hollabipura, and 10 acres of land in Mariammanahalli, a house in Yelahanka’s Akkuru and two other sites from his sister-in-laws, while he was the Tahsildar.
Bheema Nayak also bought three luxury cars for his brother Krishna Nayak and paid for the petrol pump for which Krishna is registered as the owner, alleges the note. He also bought another car for his younger brother Arjun.
He also bought a diamond ring worth over Rs 50 lakh from Krishnaiah Chetty and Sons, and Rs 1 crore worth of clothes from prominent clothing stores, the note alleges.
Nayak also laundered over Rs 25 lakh with the help of an accountant named Padmini from Karnataka Savita Samaja.
He provided provisions worth Rs 5 lakh to the Kukke Subrahmanya Swamy temple and Dattaguru Mutt in Vasanth Nagar.
Ramesh also alleges in the note that Bheema Nayak paid off judges Manjunatha Nayak and Narayana Swamy to the tune of Rs 25 lakh to get acquitted in corruption cases filed against him.
The various allegations the note makes cannot as yet be independently verified.
Facing questions from the media since details of Ramesh’s suicide note began to emerge, MP Sriramulu has dismissed any connections with the former Tahsildar Bheema Nayak and asserted that the suicide was the result of a personal matter between Bheema Nayak and Ramesh Gowda.
“These are all lies. Janardhana Reddy and many others do meet us. I am a BJP leader, a party that our Prime Minister Modi, who has launched a fight against black money, is also a part of. The driver is lying. How can I be connected to some Tahsildar? It is slander,” Sriramulu told Suvarna News.