VG Siddhartha goes missing: Kunal Bahl, Harsha Bhogle share their fondest memories

NEW DELHI: It has been a grim Tuesday since the news of the missing Coffee Day Enterprises (Cafe Coffee Day - CCD) Chairman and Managing Director starting doing the rounds on social media. While the company comfirmed, in a regulatory filing, that the VG Siddhartha was unreachable since Monday evening, many believe he might have committed suicide.

In a letter to the CCD family, the 60-year-old coffee brand owner apologised to his employees and board of directors for failing as an entrepreneur. The CCD founder confessed being under financial pressure. "I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me," he added.



Various corporate leaders, personalities and celebrities took to social media to express shock and concern for the businessman.

Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal, said that he will always consider Siddhartha as a successful entrepreneur who brought coffee in people's lives.


Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle shared that Siddhartha introduced him to his ready-to-go brand of coffee (then called Drizzle, now FiltaFresh), which he still carries with him when travelling.


The news shocked Amit Ranjan, co-founder of SlideShare. He called Siddhartha's note as a 'black letter day for startups & entrepreneurship in India'.


'Sacred Games' actress Kubbra Sait said that choked on the news. She also expressed that financial pressures can drive a motivated individual to unknown and unexpected places. 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' actress Bidita Bag said that Siddhartha's letter made her extremely sad.



Deepak Ravindran - founder of Pirate Fund, and co-founder & CEO of NameInnoz - prays for his family, emphasising on Siddhartha's last call with CMO before he went missing.


Mikkhail Vaswani, founder of cricket academy Cricfit, said that his morning coffee was not the same.



Siddhartha, the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna, was headed for Sakaleshpur but on the way he had asked his driver to go towards Mangaluru, according to the police. The missing businessman is married to Krishna's first daughter Malavika and the couple has two sons.

On reaching a bridge over the Netravati river in the Kotepura area in Dakshina Kannada district, he got down from the car and told his driver that he was going for a walk.

"He (Siddhartha) asked the driver to wait till his arrival. When he did not return even after two hours, the driver approached the police and lodged a missing complaint," deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district Senthil Sasikant Senthil told a news agency.

According to the driver, Siddhartha had left Bangalore at 11 am on Monday and kept changing his destination from Chikkamangaluru to Hassan to Sakleshpur and finally Mangalore.

Basavaraj who was driving Siddhartha in Innova car before he went missing said, "I have been working for him for the past three years. On Monday I reported for duty from his residence at 8 am and drove him to his Vittal Mallya office and returned home at 11 am. At 12:30 he asked me to drive towards Sakleshpur and then later he asked me to drive to towards Mangalore and just before we were about to enter the Mangalore circle, he asked me to take a left because he wanted to visit some site."

The place where Siddhartha has been reported is just two to three kilometres from the sea. More than 200 policemen and divers on about 25 boats were carrying out searches for him.

The deputy commissioner said that sniffer dogs have also been pressed into service.

"The help of local fishermen is being taken in the search. We are checking who all he spoke to over phone," Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil said in a message to a news agency.

He made it to Forbes India's Richest list in 2014 and dropped off in the following year. But in 2015, he secured the 1605th position on the Forbes Billionaires list in 2015. In 2016, he dropped off from that list too.