The mystery over the whereabouts of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) owner VG Siddhartha — who went missing two days ago — ended on a sombre note with the recovery of his body from the Netravati River in Dakshina Kannada district on Wednesday at 4.30 am.
The billionaire coffee tycoon, whose chain of cafes helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage and brought in latte, cappuccino, Americano and espresso into the urban Indian lexicon, was 59 and was cremated on Wednesday at his estate in his home district of Chikkamagaluru after hundreds of people paid a tearful adieu to him.
He is survived by his wife Malavika and two sons.
His son Amartya lit the funeral pyre after the last rites were performed according to the traditions of the Vokkaliga community from which he hailed, in the presence of a large number of people.
Poignant scenes were witnessed as Amartya broke down several times while performing the rituals.
87-year-old former Chief Minister SM Krishna, father-in-law of Siddhartha, and his wife Prema too fought hard to control their emotions.
A police official said “everything” points to suicide, but nothing can be ruled out until the investigation is over.
The body of Siddhartha was traced after 36 hours of an intensive search operation. After local fishermen fished it out, police rushed to the spot.
Mangalore MLA UT Khader said friends and relatives confirmed that the body is of Siddhartha.
Earlier, the officials confirmed his identity and after the post-mortem handed over the body to the family members for last rites.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who was present at the place of the last rites, called Siddhartha “a simple man and a pioneer in popularising Indian coffee in the world.”
“I can’t even imagine why a person who would have been under the guidance of SM Krishna ends his life. I give my tributes to his family,” he said.
After identification, the body was kept at Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru, from where it was taken to Chettanahalli estate near Mudigere in Chikkamagaluru district.
SM Krishna was seen supervising the arrangements at the cremation place along with other family members.
Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, Congress leader DK Shivakumar and host of VIPs paid their respects to Siddhartha.
Siddhartha went missing mysteriously on Monday night en route to the coastal city of Mangaluru. Following which the police had launched a massive search operation on Tuesday with teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Coast Guard, Home Guard, fire services and coastal police scouring the swollen Nethravathi River.
Sources said hours before his disappearance, Siddhartha had phoned his personal staff at the CCD head office in Bengaluru and asked them to make the purported suicide he had written to make public.
The letter referred to the tremendous pressure he was under from lenders and harassment from Income Tax officials. He had said in the letter that he was very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in him.
Meanwhile, Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd named former chief secretary of Karnataka and independent director of the CCD SV Ranganath as the interim chairman of the company. The board also appointed Nitin Bagmane as an interim chief operating officer (COO) of the company, Coffee Day Enterprises, which runs India’s biggest coffee chain CCD, said in a regulatory filing.
CCD, India’s biggest coffee chain, is facing mounting debts which topped almost Rs 4,500 crore. Though the group had raised debt from banks, mutual funds and NBFCs among others, Siddhartha’s letter to the board made public on Tuesday also pointed to pressure from a private equity partner to buy-back its holdings in Coffee Day Enterprises. It said the private equity partner exerted pressure on him and his businesses.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday reacted to the death of Siddhartha and tagging a news report, tweeted, “‘Ease of Doing Business’ under BJP translates into ‘Ease of Ending Business’. The #VGSiddhartha tragedy reflects the worst of a broader, deeply worrying trend.”
Late coffee tycoon’s mobile phone has so far not been recovered by the authorities. His wallet which contained his credit and debit cards and his ID card have been found.
Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing extradition proceedings in the UK, on Wednesday, took to Twitter to draw parallels with the case of CCD founder Siddhartha, who in his suicide letter has alleged “harassment” by the Income Tax Department officials.