VG Siddhartha death: Cops may question former taxman

The Mangaluru police may question BR Balakrishnan, former director-general of income-tax (investigation wing), as part of its investigation into the death of Café Coffee Day (CCD) founder VG Siddhartha.

“We are talking to a lot of people to corroborate details on what led to Siddhartha’s death. A police team comprising four personnel, which is in Bengaluru, will collect statements from the income-tax official as well,” a senior police officer who is part of the investigation told ET.

Mangaluru police commissioner Sandeep Patil was tightlipped. “A (police) team in Bengaluru is continuing its inquiry. Since the matter is under investigation, more details cannot be shared at this stage.” The police are awaiting the post-mortem report, he said.


Balakrishnan, who retired on Wednesday, was unavailable for comment. He did not respond to a text message and his private secretary told ET, “He is busy and won’t be able to respond.”

In the letter purportedly written by Siddhartha to the “CCD Family” and the company’s board on July 27, he alleged harassment by the former director general of I-T, without specifying his name. He listed several reasons for his “failure” as an entrepreneur. “There was 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 the position (sic) of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch,” the letter said.

The income-tax office doubted the authenticity of the note and said the signature does not tally with Siddhartha’s signature in his annual reports. The I-T office said the investigation in the case of Siddhartha and CCD arose from the search in the case of a prominent political leader of Karnataka. “It is based on the unearthing of credible evidence of financial transactions done by the CCD in a concealed manner,” the statement read. The department also maintained that it acted as per the provisions of the Income-tax Act.