Gali Janardhana Reddy converted Rs 100 crore black money by paying 20% commission, claims driver's suicide note

Former minister Gali Janardhana Reddy's driver has allegedly committed suicide and blamed the mining baron of mentally harassing him, reports said on Wednesday.

Bellary: Former minister Gali Janardhana Reddy's driver has allegedly committed suicide and blamed the mining baron for mentally harassing him, reports said on Wednesday.

In the alleged suicide letter, driver Ramesh Gowda claimed to know how Reddy converted Rs 100 crore black money into white.

The driver also alleged that 20 percent commission was paid to a Karnataka Administrative Service officer, Bheema Nayak, for helping Reddy in converting his unaccounted money.

The mining baron, who spent three years and four months in prison, is out on on conditional bail in graft cases related to the multi-crore mining scam in Andhra Pradesh and his home state. He was in news last month for his daughter's lavish marriage function.

Reports had claimed that Reddy spent Rs 500 crore on his daughter Bramhani's wedding on November 16.

A blockbuster wedding of mining baron and former minister Reddy's daughter marked by unmitigated opulence took place at the sprawling Palace Grounds on Wednesday at Bengaluru, raising a firestorm of controversy. The five-day extravaganza with ceremonies held against the backdrop of lavish settings concluded on Wednesday as the ostentatious wedding stirred a huge row over its timing when people across the country are reeling under cash crunch after demonetisation of high value currencies.

Days after lavish wedding of Janardhan Reddy's daughter, Income Tax officials on Monday raided his Obulapuram mining company.

The I-T raids were conducted at Reddy's Obulapuram mining company in Karnataka's Bellary.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested the tainted baron September 5, 2011 from his house at Bellary in the state`s mineral-rich northern district along with his brother-in-law and his Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) managing director BV Srinivasa Reddy and drove them to Hyderabad central jail in neighbouring Telangana.

In the main case, Reddy`s company (OMC) was accused of altering mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Bellary reserve forest, spanning the border districts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.