Missing T-shirt

The night of door-to-door search

MANGALURU: Mangaluru police will question the CFO of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd and financial advisers to the company in connection with the death of the firm’s founder-CMD VG Siddhartha .A team of investigators is in Bengaluru and has already conducted preliminary questioning of some company officials, Mangaluru police commissioner Sandeep Patil told reporters on Thursday.“The chief financial officer is currently in Tokyo,” he said. “We will mail the CFO and other financial advisers and ask them to appear before police as part of the inquiry.”Fishermen found Siddhartha’s body in Nethravathi River, near Hoige Bazaar, on Wednesday morning, around 36 hours after the Café Coffee Day founder went missing. Police suspect that Siddhartha leapt off Nethravathi Bridge.Investigators are also probing a letter Siddhartha purportedly wrote to the company’s board and employees, in which he accused the “previous DG” of the income tax department with “a lot of harassment”. The department had on Tuesday questioned the authenticity of the letter, stating the signature on it did not match Siddhartha’s.Police are taking a close look at the company’s private equity partners and lenders, whom the letter blamed for putting “tremendous pressure” on the CCD chief, the commissioner said.“Two teams led by ACP (Mangaluru South Division) T Kodandaram are working on the case,” Patil said. “One team is in Bengaluru, the other is in charge of technical aspects of the investigation. We are waiting for the postmortem report, which is likely to be out by Friday, to ascertain the cause of death.”Police picked up Siddhartha’s driver Basavaraj Patil — believed to be the last person to see the CCD founder alive — for questioning before releasing him on Thursday. “He could be called for further questioning during the probe,” the commissioner said.Police attempted to address doubts prompted by the body being found without the Tshirt Siddhartha was wearing when he went missing.“Siddhartha was wearing a T-shirt with a loose collar and probably had not tucked it in, so it may have been washed away,” an officer said. Police are questioning people whom Siddhartha spoke to on Monday, he said.Shortly after police received an alert that Siddhartha had disappeared after being seen on a bridge over Nethravathi River near Mangaluru on Monday, they made urgent door-to-door enquires in neighbouring areas, officials said on Thursday as they detailed efforts to trace him.Police teams visited apartments in Morgan’s Gate area, asking residents if they had seen Siddhartha or any person who appeared lost. Morgan’s Gate area is on the riverbank, about 500 metres from the bridge. Twelve team members showed his picture on their mobiles, according to witnesses. The enquiries continued after midnight. Police said they conducted searches based on the last known mobile location of Siddhartha. Mangaluru police commissioner Sandeep Patil confirmed on Thursday that his team went around looking for the Café Coffee Day founder.