After a frantic search of nearly 30 hours, decomposed body of Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha was recovered from the backwaters of Nethravathi River near Hoige Bazaar, police sources said. Nethravathi River is located on the outskirts of Mangaluru. Siddhartha, son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna, was missing since Monday night.
After a frantic search of nearly 30 hours, decomposed body of Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha was recovered from Nethravathi River, police sources said. The body of Siddhartha was found in the backwaters of Nethravathi River near Hoige Bazaar, they said, adding it has been taken to Government Wenlock Hospital, where a post mortem will be conducted.
“The body was found floating near Hoige Bazaar at around 6.30. We are in the process of confirming the identity of the body. The next process will go on as per law. Family members have been informed,” said city police commissioner Sandeep Patil. Nethravathi River is located on the outskirts of Mangaluru – 350km from Bengaluru and very close to the Arabian Sea. Siddhartha, the founder of country’s largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day and son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna, was missing since Monday night.
The 60-year-old coffee baron had arrived at 8pm from Bengaluru in his SUV and had asked the driver to go to the Ullal Bridge. The founder-chairman of the Rs 4,200-crore Café Coffee Day (CCD) chain was in the news for the past several months due to his debt woes; the sale of his 20.3% stake in tech company Mind Tree to L&T for Rs 3,269 crore in May was aimed at reducing his financial burden. In a letter to the “Coffee Day family”, he said he had “fought for a long time but today I gave up as I couldn’t take any more pressure” from a private equity partner and other lenders and “a lot of harassment” froma director general of income tax.
