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Photos: The disappearance and death of Cafe Coffee Day’s VG Siddhartha
The body of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder VG Siddhartha was found from the banks of the Netravathi River in Karnataka’s Mangaluru on Wednesday, two days after he went missing. The 60-year-old Siddhartha had gone missing on Monday evening from the road bridge between Ullal and Mangaluru over the river around 7pm. A look at the demise of the man behind the largest chain of coffee shops in India, a nation of tea drinkers.
Updated on: Aug 01, 2019 11:16 AM IST
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VG Siddartha, founder of Café Coffee Day chain went missing on July 29 near the Netravathi River until his body was found two days later from the same river. Siddhartha, who started his CCD chain with an outlet in Bengaluru and soon rose to 15,000 outlets, enclosed a list of assets and tentative value of each asset with a letter. “As seen our assets outweigh our liabilities and can help repay everybody,” he wrote signing off. (Sam Panthaky / AFP File)
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Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa pays his respects to the mortal remains of VG Siddhartha, in Chikmagalur. His sudden disappearance and the letter by him alluding to pressures from a PE investor to buy back shares have left many questions unanswered. Coming from a family that has a 140-year history of growing coffee, Siddhartha initially dabbled in stock trading before actually setting his foot in the coffee business. (PTI)
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On Monday, July 29, Siddhartha asked his driver to drop him off at the Netravathi bridge in Mangaluru as he wanted to take a walk. When there was no sight of him an hour later and the driver alerted the family, and they in turn informed the authorities. (STR / AFP)
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The police was alerted and teams of NDRF, Coast Guard, Home Guard, Fire Services and Coastal Police carried out a search operation for the coffee baron. “I am very sorry to let down all the people who put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure,” Siddhartha, wrote to his employees few days back. (PTI)
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Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress veteran Siddaramaiah met former external affairs minister SM Krishna, father-in-law of Siddhartha, in Bengaluru to discuss the matter. Siddhartha found himself in trouble in September 2017 when the Income Tax (I-T) department conducted raids at over 20 locations linked to him. (PTI)
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Siddhartha’s body was found from the banks of the Netravathi River in Karnataka’s Mangaluru on Wednesday, two days after he went missing. 1750 retail outlets in about 240 cities remained shut for the day as a mark of respect to the founder-chairman. A holiday was also declared for the workers and employees of all coffee estates in the three coffee districts of Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Kodugu. (REUTERS)
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Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd had seen net loss widening to Rs 67.71 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 from Rs 22.28 crore loss in the previous year. This despite revenues climbing 59% to Rs 122.32 crore. Siddhartha was reportedly in talks to sell his real estate venture Tanglin Developments Ltd to New York-based private equity giant Blackstone Group. (Manjunath Kiran / AFP)
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