Bangalore, Dec. 8: A Karnataka Administrative Service official now on the run after being named in his driver's purported suicide note had once been arrested for accepting a bribe.

That was in July 2013, when Bheema Nayak was tehsildar of Bangalore.

The Lokayukta police - a special police wing that functions under the state's anti-graft ombudsman - had caught Nayak red-handed while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000.

According to a Lokayukta source, the case is still pending in the Special Lokayukta Court in the Karnataka capital.

Nayak and his family's driver Mohammed, both named in the purported suicide note Ramesh Gowda has left behind, remained untraced, two days after the 31-year-old poisoned himself in a lodge in Maddur, in Mandya district.

In the letter, Gowda, Nayak's personal driver, accused Nayak and Mohammed of threatening him since he knew too much about his boss's corrupt deals.

The note also alleged that Nayak helped scam-tainted mining baron Janardhan Reddy convert demonetised currency worth Rs 100 crore days ahead of a lavish wedding the out-on-bail tycoon had hosted for his daughter.

Reddy's family has denied the allegation.

In his purported note, Gowda alleged that Nayak had amassed huge wealth in the form of land in his hometown Bellary, Bangalore and Belgaum and bought properties in the name of his wife's sister, besides buying a petrol pump for his brother Krishna Nayak.

One of Nayak's subordinates said the official was absent without notice for the second consecutive day. "There is no news. We tried calling, but his mobile phone was switched off even today," the subordinate, who cannot be identified, told The Telegraph today.

Nayak's mobile phone was switched off when this newspaper tried to call him today.

Nayak's office confirmed that Gowda was the official's personal driver and was not on the government's rolls. Mohammed, the second man on the run, is the driver assigned for Nayak's family.

The office also confirmed that Gowda had stopped coming to work about two weeks ago, but didn't know why.

Mathew Thomas, deputy superintendent of police, Maddur, said special teams were investigating the case. "Our teams are already out in various places to investigate the allegations raised in the suicide note. But Nayak and Mohammed are still absconding," the police officer said.

"The investigation will look for concrete evidence on the allegations (against Nayak)," Thomas said, adding the police were on track.

A senior government official said bringing in central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate or even the CBI would depend on the evidence unearthed in the police investigations.

The official said the allegations in the suicide note were being taken seriously because of the alleged involvement of two senior government officials in a money-laundering case that came to light after income tax officials raided their homes in Bangalore last week.

The search at the homes of the two officials and two contractors revealed assets worth Rs 152 crore, including Rs 5.7 crore in the new Rs 2,000 notes.

While the income tax department has since handed over the case to the Enforcement Directorate, the Karnataka government's anti-corruption bureau (ACB) today raided properties linked to the two officers, S.C. Jayachandra and T.N. Chikkarayappa.

While Jayachandra's house was raided in Bangalore, sleuths searched a house that belonged to a relative of Chikkarayappa in Bangarpet, around 80km from here. Both officials have since been suspended.

Before their suspension, Jayachandra was the chief project officer of the Karnataka State Highway Development Project, while Chikkarayappa was the managing director of the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam that manages water resources in the Cauvery basin districts.