Cafe Coffee Day founder Siddhartha’s father passes away

Mysuru, Aug 25: Gangaiah Hegde, father of late Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder VG Siddhartha, passed away at a hospital in Mysuru, less than a month after the tragic demise of his son.

The 96-year-old was admitted to the city's Shanthaveri Gopala Gowda hospital, which is run by a relative of Siddhartha's father-in-law and former Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna.

Siddhartha went missing on July 29 from the Netravati Bridge, later he was found dead on the banks of Netravati River near Hoige Bazaar in Mangaluru on July 31.

After he was reported missing, an alleged letter written by him to the board of directors and the "Coffee Day family" showed he was under "tremendous pressure" from lenders. However, the letter's authenticity could not be verified.

In the letter, Siddhartha said, "I have failed as an entrepreneur."

"Tremendous pressure from other lenders lead to me succumbing to the situation," he said.

In the letter, Siddhartha complained of "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 possession of our Coffee Day shares, although revised returns have been filed by us".

However, the IT department in Bengaluru questioned the signature on this note and said "the authenticity of the note is not known and the signature does not tally with the signature as available in his annual reports."