VG Siddhartha Death: CCD owner's cremation to take place at father's Belur estate

The last rites of CCD owner VG Siddhartha will take place at his father's estate in Karantaka's Belur, said his close aide Sringeri MLA TD Rajegowda.

"The family members have all decided that cremation will take place at his father's estate in Belur Taluk," Rajegowda told news agency ANI.

Following a massive search operation involving multiple agencies, the body of missing CCD founder-owner VG Siddhartha was found on the banks of Netravati River near Hoige Bazaar in Mangaluru on Wednesday.

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VG Siddhartha, whose Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) was India's answer to Starbucks and Costa Coffee, was found dead on the banks of Netravati River in Mangaluru on Wednesday morning.

His body was found after 36 hours of an intense search operation by the Karnataka Police and NDRF. 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".

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."

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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 the further investigation," said Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil.

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