File photo

MANGALURU/ BENGALURU: A day and a half after Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha was feared to have jumped off the Nethravathi bridge in Mangaluru, his body was found a kilometre from the spot by fishermen and policemen around 6.30am on Wednesday. Following post-mortem, police said it appeared to be suicide but investigations were on.

The news triggered a storm of reactions from the business world. While most recalled a "humble" and "brilliant" entrepreneur, others blamed the enforcement agencies for driving the 59-year-old "Coffee King" to suicide as evident from his purported suicide note. CCD, which named S V Ranganath as interim chairman, said the note would be probed.

He was cremated at the family estate, Chetanahally, about 18km from his hometown Mudigere. His mother, Vaasanti, was present at the funeral, his father is in a coma in a Mysuru hospital.

His body was found near the backwaters of Hoige Bazar. Siddhartha was wearing his watch, ring and shoes but was shirtless. Fishermen said it may have been ripped by the strong tide. There was an injury on his forehead and bleeding from the nose-he perhaps hit something while jumping.

After the post-mortem at the government-run District Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru, the body was moved to Mudigere in Chikkamagaluru around 10.45am. Coffee-growers and estate workers joined nearly 5,000 locals and lined both sides of the road as the ambulance passed.

Later, nearly 10,000 people, including politicians, VVIPs and CCD staff, paid homage to Siddhartha and consoled his father-in-law, former CM S M Krishna, and other family members. Sons Amartya and Ishaan lit the funeral pyre in the garden near the house.

