Indian coffee tycoon’s body found in river
NEW DELHI. KAZINFORM - The body of the founder of India’s largest coffee chain was recovered from the banks of a river on Wednesday, police said, two days after the businessman allegedly jumped off a bridge to commit suicide, EFE reports.
A fishermandetected the body of 59-year-old VG Siddhartha, the founder of Cafe Coffee Day,on the banks of the Nethravathi river in Mangaluru, a port city in the southernIndian state of Karnataka, a police spokesperson told EFE on the condition ofanonymity.
«The body hasbeen identified and the autopsy is going on,» the spokesperson said.
The newsconfirming Siddhartha’s death brought the shares of his flagship listed CoffeeDay Enterprises, which has also forayed into technology and logistics, tumblingdown for the second consecutive day, with a drop of 19.99 percent untilWednesday noon.
The enterprisealso informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) of his «tragic demise», notingthat he had single-handedly built the company with his «matchless energy, visionand business acumen».
The board ofdirectors of the company in its BSE filing said it had appointed SV Ranganathas its interim chairman.
It alsoconstituted an executive committee vested with the powers of chief executive to«explore opportunities to deleverage the Coffee Day Group».
Thebusinessman, apparently under a financial strain, had sent a letter to thecompany's employees and board of directors in which he said that he was under«tremendous pressure» and facing «harassment» from theIndian income tax authorities.
The boardinformed the stock exchange that it was verifying the authenticity of the noteand had taken «cognizance of statements in the purported letter from VGSiddhartha relating to financial transactions outside the knowledge of thesenior management, auditors and the board».
VG Sidhharthawas last seen alive by his driver near a bridge over the Nethravathi riverwhose waters have swelled-up due to the monsoon.
Thebusinessman had purportedly asked his driver to drop him off at the bridge,saying he wanted to walk. When he didn’t turn up after some time, the driverinformed the police about his disappearance.
Sidhhartha hadbeen missing ever since, triggering speculations that he may have committedsuicide.
The tycoonopened the first Cafe Coffee Day in 1996 in Bengaluru in south India, a havenfor coffee enthusiasts, and now, more than two decades later, it is a leader inthe sector with 1,722 establishments in 245 Indian cities.
The cafes,popularly known as CCDs, became a regular meeting point for both businessmenand young people, who found in them cheap and quiet hangouts.