Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder-chairman VG Siddhartha is no more, as his body was found in Karnataka's Netravathi river on Wednesday. He was 60.
Siddhartha, the son-in-law of BJP leader SM Krishna, was under the scanner of the income tax department and Enforcement Directorate for alleged irregularities in his association with information technology company Mindtree Ltd.
In the letter to directors of his company, Siddhartha said there was a lot of harassment from a senior income tax department official in the form of attaching “our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Coffee Day shares, although revised returns have been filed by us”.
"Two fishermen found Siddhartha's body early this morning about 500 metres away from the road bridge from where he alleged to have jumped into the river on Monday night," a Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil told reporters here. The port city of Mangaluru is about 360km west of Bengaluru. The body was found by the fishermen near Hoige Bazar in trousers but without a shirt.
This how the corporate world reacted to the Coffee King's death:
Chairman of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra said in a Tweet that, "I did not know him & have no knowledge of his financial circumstances. I only know that entrepreneurs must not allow business failure to destroy their self-esteem. That will bring about the death of entrepreneurship."
Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw shared condolences on Twitter. "Cafe Coffee Day Owner's Body Found By River 2 Days After He Went Missing - My deepest condolences to VG Siddhartha’s widow Malavika and his sons and to Shri & Smt SM Krishna and family. RIP," Mazumdar said in a tweet.
Harsh Mariwala, Chairman of Marico, also took on Twitter saying, "Saddened to hear about #VGSiddhartha. Let's start having open conversations about mental well-being, the stresses that are unique to entrepreneurs & how to build a support system of peers & professionals.#CCD #Mentalhealth #entrepreneurs."
Co-founder of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal, said on Twitter, "I had known #VGSiddhartha personally and was always amazed at his energy and positivity. Distressed by his disappearance. He has been an inspiring entrepreneur and investor."
Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Wednesday cited the disappearance of CCD founder-owner VG Siddhartha to corner the government agencies and banks while asserting that he is devastated with the contents of his letter. “I am indirectly related to VG Siddhartha. Excellent human and brilliant entrepreneur. I am devastated with the contents of his letter. The Govt Agencies and Banks can drive anyone to despair. See what they are doing to me despite offer of full repayment. Vicious and unrelenting (sic),” Vijay Mallya tweeted.
