Cafe Coffee Day owner Siddhartha goes missing

Mangaluru/Bengaluru: India's biggest coffee chain founder V G Siddhartha was reported missing mysteriously since Monday night en route to Mangaluru city in Karnataka, with an alleged letter by him showing he was under "tremendous pressure" from lenders.

Teams of national disaster response force, coast guard, home guard, fire services and coastal police scoured the waters under a bridge across the swollen Nethravathi river, where 60-year old Siddhartha was reportedly last seen, to trace the coffee tycoon.

Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) chain owner Siddhartha, also the son-in-law of former Karnataka CM and BJP leader S M Krishna, was last seen near the bridge in the Kotepura area in Dakshina Kannada district on Monday night, police said.

Local fisherman, along with their boats, have also joined in the frantic search operations. Siddhartha reportedly asked his driver to take him near the bridge, from where he got down and said he was going for a walk.

"He (Siddhartha) asked the driver to wait till his arrival. When he did not return even after two hours, the driver approached the police and lodged a missing complaint," Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district Sasikanth Senthil said.

In a purported letter to the Board of Directors of his company and "Coffee Day family", dated July 27, Siddhartha said he had "failed to create the right profitable business model", and said he was "very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me". Meanwhile, the shares of the coffee chain plunged 20 per cent in early trading on Tuesday.

"I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend. Tremendous pressure from other lenders lead to me succumbing to the situation," Siddhartha wrote.

Siddhartha also mentions the "harassment" he allegedly faced at the hands of Income Tax officials. "There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG Income Tax 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 the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch."

In the letter, Siddhartha has also taken responsibility for all financial transactions, which, he said, nobody was aware of. "I sincerely request each of you to be strong and to continue running these businesses with a new management.

I am solely responsible for all mistakes. Every financial transaction is my responsibility. My team, auditors and senior management are totally unaware of all my transactions.

The law should hold me, and only me accountable, as I have withheld this information from everybody, including my family." He further wrote: "My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody. I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submission, I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the CCD head office in Bengaluru said the company is yet to confirm the genuineness of the letter. "We are still in shock and our employees are still hoping for the best. As of now, we are yet to confirm the genuineness of the letter that is being flashed in the media.

We are here to ensure that business will not be hit in any circumstances," the spokesperson said.

There are over 200 policemen and divers on 25 boats searching for Siddhartha at the bridge. Sniffer dogs have also been deployed at the site. "The help of local fishermen is being taken in the search. We are checking who all he spoke to over phone," Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil said.

As 15 hours passed after CCD founder VG Siddhartha went missing, diving experts from the Indian Navy in Karwar have joined to intensify the ongoing search operation. "We had begun search operations last night itself.

Over 50 people in 8 boats are now on duty. Two ships from Coast Guard and a helicopter from Goa will be brought in soon," said Sasikanth Senthil. He is overseeing search operations at Ullal bridge cross the Nethravathi River near Mangalore.