Missing Siddhartha found dead

Mangaluru/Bengaluru: The body of billionaire coffee tycoon V G Siddhartha was found by local fishermen floating in the Nethravathi river near Mangaluru on Wednesday, two days after he went missing.

A police official said "everything" points to the suicide of Café Coffee Day founder, but nothing can be ruled out until the investigation is over. Siddhartha, whose chain of cafes helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage and brought in latte, cappuccino, Americano and espresso into the urban Indian lexicon, was 60. He is survived by his wife Malavika and two sons, Amartya and Ishaan.

His body was identified by his friends, said Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil. The body 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, founder of India's largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day, was reportedly last seen on Monday night, officials said.

After the post-mortem at Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru, the body was taken to Siddhartha's home district of Chikkamagalur, where it was cremated in a sombre atmosphere after hundreds of people paid a tearful homage to the 'Coffee King" at his Chetanahalli estate.

Siddhartha's son Amartya lit the funeral pyre after the last rites were performed according to the traditions of the Vokkaliga community from which Siddhartha hailed, in the presence of a large number of people.

The atmosphere turned sombre as Amartya lit the pyre. The youth broke down several times while performing rituals. The 87-year-old former Chief Minister S M Krishna, father-in-law of Siddhartha 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.