Update
Chikkamagaluru, Jul 31: As per the latest reports thousands of people paid their last respects to the mortals remains of Coffee Day’s Siddhartha Hegde on Wednesday, July 31 at Chikkamagaluru and Mudigere before he was cremated at his ancestral village Chetanahalli.
Siddhartha's elder son Amartya lighted the pyre.
Siddhartha's father, Gangaiah Hegde, is in hospital and could not attend his son's funeral.
Earlier News
Mangaluru: Coffee Day’s Siddhartha's mortal remains shifted to Chikkamagaluru, funeral on Jul 31
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje/Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Jul 31: Body of Siddhartha Hegde who was missing since the evening of Monday was found on Wednesday morning of July 31.
The body was found on the riverbank at Hoige Bazar area in city. Local fishermen, who were about to go for fishing in the morning, found the body and alerted the police.
Body was taken to Wenlock Hospital for post-mortem and which it was shifted to Chikkamagaluru.
Funeral will be held in Chikkamagaluru on July 31 evening.
"Two fishermen found Siddhartha's body early this morning about 500 metres away from the road bridge from where he alleged to have jumped into the river on Monday night," Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil told reporters here.
The body was found by the fishermen near Hoige Bazar in trousers but without shirt.
"The body has been shifted to the state-run Wenlock hospital mortuary here for autopsy. It will be handed over to Siddhartha's family and taken to Chikkamgaluru for the last rites," Ullal Congress legislator and former minister U.T. Khadar said.
"It was identified to be Siddhartha's with a gold ring on his right hand finger, a digital watch on his left hand and shoes he was wearing when he appears to have jumped off the road bridge.
On asked about the body found with the torso naked and only trousers on, Khader said though it was for the police to investigate whether he took them off before jumping into the river, as they were not found on the bridge or in the vicinity during the 36-hour long search operation.
The 36-hour long massive search in the river had continued over the last two night which led to the spot where the body surfaced and seen by the two fishermen.
"The body will be kept for homage by the public at Chikkamgaluru and the last rites will be performed at Siddharatha's native village in the Coffee district.
It was also a fisherman named Simon D'Souza on Tuesday, who had claimed to have seen a man, likely to be the CCD founder, jumping into the Netravathi river from the same bridge on Monday evening, police had said, almost 24 hours after his driver raised an alarm about the missing businessman.
Two days prior to his disappearance, the 60-year-old had left behind a note to his employees that revealed he was in deep debt.
The mountain of debt was impairing his business as working capital requirements could not be met. It led him to sale his stakes in IT firm Mindtree that gave him some room to manoeuvre.
"I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts. 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...," his note read.
In his desperation, he was also reportedly in a dialogue with global beverage maker Coca-Cola for an equity sale in flagship Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) at an enterprise valuation of around Rs 10,000 crore may have been on the anvil.
In a complaint to the police, his driver, who last saw him alive, said that Siddhartha told him to stop by the side soon as they drove on to the bridge and asked him to wait in the car at the end of the bridge as he wanted to walk up and had to make calls.
"When the rain started, I took a u-turn and drove back to the spot where I left Sir and searched around for him. As it was dark, windy and raining, I could not find him anywhere on the bridge or in the river," Patil had said in the complaint.
Siddhartha left Bengaluru on Monday afternoon to Sakleshpur near Hassan where he has a house and one of his coffee estates. As it was on way to Mangaluru, he told Patil to drive towards Mangaluru after a short break at Sakleshpur to fresh-up.
Siddhartha is the elder son-in-law of senior BJP leader, S M Krishna, who was External Affairs Minister in the UPA-2 government (2009-12) and state Chief Minister (1999-2004) when in the Congress.
Earlier Updates
Mangaluru: Did fisherman Simon D’Souza see Siddhartha Hegde jumping off bridge?
Mangaluru, July 30: A video has surfaced in which a fisherman gave information about seeing a man falling into Netravati River on Monday night. It is now believed that it could be Siddhartha Hegde who went missing from here.
The person who gave the information is Simon D’Souza, resident of Ullal. He saw something falling in Netravati River at about 7 pm when he was throwing his net for fishing on Monday evening as he is a fisherman.
While Simon was fishing near sixth pillar of the bridge, he saw something falling down in the river near eighth pillar. Simon immediately came to know that somebody jumped in the river. Simon took his boat to eighth pillar but the person who had jumped in the river was sinking. “The person had already gone deep in the water by the time my boat reached there. Therefore, I was helpless,” he said.
Siddhartha Hegde
Simon D'Souza
However Simon, out of determination, started searching for the person. People in another boat who were approaching there also started searching for the person who jumped. But the person could not be seen as the river is deep in that part.
Simon has rescued several people who had jumped in the river in the past. That includes a police officer and a young girl. Simon had regret when he said that he became helpless in this instance.
In that case who was the person who jumped in the river at 7 pm on Monday evening? Can he be Siddhartha Hegde, the founder of Coffee day, is the suspicion bothering everyone.
Siddhartha Hegde went missing on the same spot from Monday evening. The search operation is on.
Watch Video:
Cafe Coffee Day's Siddhartha Hegde goes missing from Mangaluru, last letter to board goes viral
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Jul 30: In his last letter addressed to the board of directors and the Cafe Coffee Day family, Siddhartha Hegde, son-in-law of former chief minister (CM) S M Krishna and renowned entrepreneur and founder of Cafe Coffee Day chain of restaurants has expressed his helplessness in various business-related matters.
In his letter, Siddartha Hegde says, "After 37 years, with strong commitment to hardwork, having directly created 30,000 jobs in our companies and their subsidiaries as well as another 20,000 jobs in technology company, where I have been a large shareholder since its founding, I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts.
"I would like to say I gave it 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, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend. Tremendous pressure from other lenders led me to succumbing to the situation.
"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.
"I sincerely request each of your to be strong and to continue running these businesses with a new management. I am solely responsible for all my mistakes. Every financial transaction is my responsibility. My team, auditors and senior management are totally unaware of my transactions. The law should hold me accountable, as I have withheld this information from everybody, including my family.
"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.
"I have enclosed a list of our assets and tentative value of each asset. As seen below, our assets outweigh our liabilities and can help repay everybody,” he stated.
Earlier report
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje/Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Jul 30: Siddhartha Hegde, son-in-law of former chief minister (CM), S M Krishna, who happens to be a renowned entrepreneur and founder of Cafe Coffee Day chain of restaurants, went missing under mysterious circumstances. At around 7.30 pm on Monday July 29, he parked his car near Netravati Bridge near the city and then disappeared all of a sudden.
Siddhartha had travelled in an Innova car bearing registration No. KA 03 NC 2592 standing in the name of a private company along with two others. It is said that when leaving Bengaluru, he had told his close ones that he would be visiting Sakleshpur. On the way, he seemed to have changed his mind and asked the driver to move ahead to Mangaluru. When the car reached near Pumpwell, two who had accompanied Siddhartha alighted from the vehicle and went away. Under Siddhartha's instructions, the driver turned the car towards Ullal.
When the car reached near Netravati Bridge, it is said, Siddhartha asked the driver to stop the car. Siddhartha got down from the car and walked on the bridge by foot. He went round the bridge, came back near the car, said that he was walking, and then continued his walk. The driver seated inside the car had seen him moving ahead. By then heavy downpour started and the driver could not see where Siddhartha had headed as his visibility was impaired.
As Siddhartha did not return for a long time, the driver began to search for him and then informed the police about the said mysterious disappearance. The police visited the spot and undertook scrutiny but they could not find out where Siddhartha had gone or whether he met with any unforeseen incident. His disappearance has given rise to curiosity and people of the state are apprehensive at this development.
Sources said that Siddhartha was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans trousers. Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, Sasikanth Senthil, senior police officers, fire brigade personnel etc came on the scene at night and undertook investigation. The canine squad put to work reached the middle of the bridge and stopped. As it was dark, the personnel could not conduct search operation in the river, and hence postponed the operation to Tuesday.
The concerned have put into operation boat service and local fishermen to conduct searches inside the river. The police have also been trying to find out the details of the persons with whom Siddhartha spoke or was in contact before he disappeared, to collect detailed information so that they can draw inferences on what would have happened, and concentrate their investigation on those points.
Driver of Siddhartha Hedge, Basavaraj Patil (27) has lodged a complaint regarding the matter at Kankanady police station.
Earlier reports had said that two persons had accompanied Siddhartha in the car and they got down at Pumpwell Circle, but police complaint does not mention anything about the sane.
Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje along with Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel met home minister Amit Shah for central government’s help to trace V G Siddhartha, who is found to be missing since July 29.
Currently, the search operation is in progress. Eight boats are in search. An entire battalion of NDRF, two ships from Coast Guard, Home Guard and fire service personnel, coastal security police, deep divers from karwar and local fisherman community are also involved, informed deputy commissioner Sasikanth Senthil and police commissioner Sandeep Patil.
“One team led by police sub-inspector CCB Mangaluru has been sent to Bengaluru for enquiry. They will talk to relatives and find out details. They will also visit his office and see if any information can be gathered,” added police commissioner Sandeep Patil.
It is gathered that at around 6 pm he entered the bridge. Last called at 6:05 pm to CFO of Coffee Day. After 6:30 pm, mobile activity reportedly stopped. At 7:55 pm, the car driver called and informed.
Search operation was carried out from 12 midnight to 5:45 am at Ullal bridge. The search team reached Alivebaagilu, Bengre on Tuesday.