Siddhartha, the founder of India's largest coffee chain, went missing on Monday night en route to the coastal Karnataka city of Mangaluru.
The
body of Cafe Coffee Day founder V
G Siddhartha has been found from the Nethravathi river, according
to TV reports on Wednesday.
Siddhartha's
body was found on the banks of the river near the Hoige Bazaar in
Mangaluru, according to news agency ANI.
Siddhartha,
the founder of India’s largest coffee chain, went missing on Monday
night en route to the coastal Karnataka city of Mangaluru, with a
letter purportedly written by him showing he was under "tremendous
pressure" from lenders and one of the private equity partners
(PEs). The letter also alleged "a lot of harassment" from
tax authorities.
A
massive search operation involving teams of the National Disaster
Response Force, Coast Guard, Home Guard, fire services and coastal
police had continued throughout Tuesday. Search teams had scoured the
waters under a bridge across the Nethravathi river near Mangaluru
where the 60-year-old businessman was reportedly last seen.
The
son of a coffee plantation owner, Siddhartha had created the Indian
rival to Starbucks. Coming from a family that has a 140-year history
of growing coffee, he initially dabbled in stock trading, before
setting his foot in the coffee business.
After
being inspired by a chat with the owners of German coffee chain
Tchibo, Siddhartha decided to open his own chain of cafes in India.
With the tag line 'A lot can happen over a cup of coffee', he opened
Cafe
Coffee Day's first outlet on Bangalore's upscale Brigade Road in
1994.
It's
now the largest chain of coffee shops in India, with 1,750 cafes in
more than 200 cities, including outlets in Prague, Vienna and Kuala
Lumpur. Coffee Day went public in 2015.
In
1999, Siddhartha was roped in by IT veteran Ashok Soota when Subroto
Bagchi, Rostow Ravanan and KK Natarajan were putting together IT firm
Mindtree.
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