Cafe Coffee Day founder dead, body found 2 days after he went missing

Billionaire coffee tycoon V G Siddhartha, who went missing since Monday, is dead and his body was recovered from the banks of the Nethravathi river near Mangaluru in Karnataka on Wednesday.59-year-old Siddhartha, son-in-law of BJP leader and former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, was cremated in a sombre atmosphere after hundreds of people paid a tearful homage to the ‘Coffee King” at his Chetanahali estate in his ancestral village in Chikkamagaluru where hundreds of people gathered to pay their last respects.Siddhartha, whose chain of cafes helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage, is survived by his wife Malavika and two sons,Amartya and Ishaan.A police official said “everything” points to suicide, but nothing can be ruled out until the investigation is over.Siddhartha’s body was found by local fishermen and patrolling policemen, two days after he went missing under mysterious circumstances.His body was identified by his friends, said Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil.After the post-mortem at Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru, the body was taken to ChikkamagaluruAmartya lit the funeral pyre after the last rites were performed according to the traditions of the Vokkaliga community from which Siddhartha hailed.The atmosphere turned sombre as Amartya lit the pyre. The youth broke down several times while performing the rituals. Krishna, 87 and his wife Prema too fought hard to control their emotions.A large number of people from within the coffee estate and neighbouring villages, whom Siddhartha had helped come up in life, thronged to pay their homage.
Before Chethanahalli, the body was kept at Chikkamagaluru for people to pay their last respects.Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, his predecessor H D Kumaraswamy and several political leaders attended the funeral.The remains of Siddhartha was traced after 36 hours of an intensive search operation with a letter allegedly written by him to the Board of Directors and employees of his company Coffee Day Enterprises, showing he was struggling with financial problems due to debt, taxes and share buy backs.
The search involved multiple agencies, which scoured the waters under a bridge across Nethravathi, where Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day, was reportedly last seen on Monday night, officials said. Borrowing Rs five lakh from his father to pursue his dreams, Siddhartha, known for being shy and self-effacing, went on to become “coffee king”, creating jobs for thousands of youth instead of joining the family business.