VG Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest Coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day is missing since Monday evening and Karnataka police hunting for him .
In a letter reportedly written by Siddhartha to the board of directors and his CCD family before he went missing.
he said he had “failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts”.
He added, “I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. 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….”
According to reports, Siddhartha got off from his car near a bridge across the Nethravathi River near Mangalore, about 375km from Bengaluru, but did not return even after an hour. A panicked driver went down looking for him, but could not find him anywhere. He then alerted the family members who in turn informed the police.
Rescue teams and sniffer dogs are scanning the bridge over the Netravati river. The Coast Guard and the National Disaster Response Force have joined the search.
meanwhile Congress leader DK Shivakumar said he got a call from missing Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha on July 28. Siddhartha asked if they could meet, Shivakumar said in a tweet.
He also called the letter written by Siddhartha to the board and employees “utterly fishy”. Shivakumar said, “However, I find this utterly fishy and urge that a thorough Investigation be conducted into this matter. Shri Siddhartha and his family were closely known to me for decades now.”
The Karnataka government has already started search operations in the Netravathi bridge area. Since it is raining in the coastal Karnataka, the water level in the river has gone up to a serious level.
Shares of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd plunged 20% on Tuesday after the company’s founder VG Siddhartha went missing . Coffee Day Enterprises shares were locked in a 20% lower circuit at Rs 153.40. The stock, as of its Monday’s closing price, has corrected nearly 27% in the last one year.
