Fugitive liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya Wednesday drew parallels with CCD founder-owner VG Siddhartha's case expressing shock over the contents of Siddhartha's letter. Mallya asserted that he had faced similar harassment at the hands of government agencies and banks.
Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the economic fugitive said, "I am indirectly related to VG Siddhartha. Excellent human and brilliant entrepreneur. I am devastated with the contents of his letter. The Government Agencies and Banks can drive anyone to despair. See what they are doing to me despite an offer of full repayment. Vicious and unrelenting".
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In his bid to corner the government agencies and banks, Mallya tweeted: "In Western Countries, Government and Banks help borrowers repay their debts. In my case they are obstructing every possible effort for me to repay my debt whilst competing for my assets. As far as the prima facie criminal case goes wait for the appeal granted."
VG Siddhartha had alleged harassment by income tax officials and a private equity partner in his letter to employees and the management of the CCD group. Under pressure over rising competition and a debt of over Rs 6,500 crore, VG Siddhartha said in his letter that he had failed as an "entrepreneur".
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However, rebutting Siddhartha's claims, the I-T department raised questions on the authenticity of the letter allegedly written by the businessman. The department said, "The authenticity of the note is not known and the signature does not tally with VGS' signature as available in his annual reports."
Siddhartha's body was finally recovered around 6:50 am on Wednesday morning. He was missing from the Nethravathi dam site in Karnataka since Monday evening.
As per his driver, he got off from his car near a bridge in Kotekar on the Nethravathi River near Mangalore around 6.30 pm on Monday and did not come back. As Siddhartha did not return even after an hour, his driver tried to look for him but to no avail. "We found the body early morning today. It needs to be identified, we have already informed the family members. We are shifting the body to Wenlock Hospital. We will continue further investigation," said Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil.
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