Mangaluru: Coffee tycoon Siddhartha goes missing from Netravati Bridge; massive search underway

coastaldigest.com web desk
July 30, 2019

Mangaluru, Jul 30: VG Siddhartha, the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna and founder of country's largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day, is reportedly missing since Monday night. 

There are reports doing the rounds that the billionaire who faced series of I-T raids last year jumped off the bridge into Netravati River near Tokkottu. Though a search operation is on, the police are not in a position to confirm if he jumped into the river. 

Sources said Siddhartha had arrived at 8pm from Bengaluru in his SUV and had asked the driver to go to the Netravati bridge near Tokkottu.

"Yesterday, he had left Bengaluru saying he was going to Sakleshpur. But on the way, he told the driver to go to Mangaluru. After reaching the Netravati bridge, he got down from the car. Siddhartha asked his driver to drive a little further and stop. He will come walking. However, he didn't return. The dog squad used to locate him too stopped at the middle of the bridge," Mangaluru city police commissioner Sandeep Patil said.

The police have summoned helicopters and coast guards to facilitate the search operations. Over 200 personnel, including 25 swimmers, have been pressed into service to locate him, the officer added. 

Siddhartha's companies employ around 30,000 people across India. Siddhartha, son of a coffee plantation owner, dabbled in stock trading before starting Café Coffee Day with one outlet in Bengaluru in 1996, which has now emerged as the largest chain of coffee shops in India. He recently sold his stakes in a software company Mindtree for about Rs 3,000 crore. He was recently in the news for being in talks with Coca-Cola to sell CCD.

Cafe Coffe Day clocked a revenue of Rs 1,777 crore and Rs 1,814 crore in financial years 2018 and 2019, respectively, and eyeing Rs 2,250 crore by March 2020. As of March 2019, CCD runs 1,752 cafes across India.

Shares of Coffee Day Enterprises shed 19.99% in the early trade on July 30 after Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha was reported missing since the night of July 29. CCD stock opened at a loss of 19.99% or 38.50 points to Rs 154.05 on BSE, also the stock's all time and new 52 week low. There are only sellers in the stock and no buyers standing.

Also Read:

Siddhartha was eager to sell his Cafe Coffee Day stake to Coca-Cola?

Cops grill Siddhartha’s car driver at undisclosed location

Karnataka BJP MPs meet Amit Shah; seek help to trace ‘missing’ Siddhartha

‘Utterly fishy. Unbelievable. Siddhartha called me on July 28. He wanted to meet me’: D K Shivakmuar

'I have failed as an entrepreneur… I gave up': V G Siddhartha’s alleged letter goes viral

Comments

Mahesh Bhandary
 - 
Tuesday, 30 Jul 2019

He was a inspiration to many, but given a wrong message behind his suicide.

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News Network
March 13,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 13: District administration in Kalaburagi, where the first death in India due to COVID-19 was reported, has identified over 25 people, who come close to the deceased and quarantined for observation, Minister for Health B Sreeramulu said on Friday.

In reply to a debate on the issue during Zero Hour of the Legislative Assembly, the Health Minister said that two members of the victim’s family and 23 others are suspected of COVID-19.

Mr. Sreeramulu said all the schools of the district have been as a preventive measure to contain the deadly virus.

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News Network
May 28,2020

Bengaluru, May 28: A thousand government schools in Karnataka are set to get Englishmedium sections from this academic year (2020-21). These institutions will function in both English and Kannada medium.

The decision was taken by primary and secondary education minister S Suresh Kumar and officials of the education department at a meeting on Wednesday.

Suresh Kumar said dualmedium will help improve the standard of schools and enable their development. The poorest of the poor spend almost 40% of their income on their children’s education in private schools. With the introduction of dual-medium, the government hopes such families will be able to save their earnings, he said. These schools will impart lessons in both English and Kannada. They will also provide textbooks in both languages.

‘Kannada must for all’

The meeting reviewed implementation of the compulsory Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015. Officials from the Kannada Development Authority were present at the meeting who claimed that some private schools have failed to implement the Act properly.

“Action will be taken against such institutions. Every child studying in schools across the state must learn Kannada,” Kumar said at the meeting.

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News Network
April 9,2020

Mysuru, Apr 9: The Administrative Training Institute (ATI) here was all set to impart training through online to Taluk Panchayat and the Gram Panchayat officials on tackling the deadly virus COVID-19, which was spreading like wildfire.

The Disaster Management Centre of ATI would conduct the training through Zoom application. Taluk Panchayat Executive officers and officials of the Gram Panchayats were invited to undergo training sessions.

District Vector-borne Diseases Control officer S Chidambar and World Health Organization representative Dr Sudhir Nayak would conduct sessions on handling the situation in rural region. The officials from 102 TP/GP Panchayats from 16 districts will attend the programme, on Thursday.

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