Fought for a long time, but today I gave up: Cafe Coffee day owner goes missing, last note found

V. G. Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day has gone missing from a bridge near Karnataka’s Mangalore.Coffee Day has gone missing from a bridge near Karnataka’s Mangalore. He was last seen on the bridge over the Netravati river in the coastal town at 6:30 pm on July 29, according to the police.

Siddhartha, who is also the son-in-law of former Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna, got off from his car near a bridge across the Nethravathi River near Mangalore, about 375km from Bengaluru, but did not return even after an hour. A panicked driver went down looking for him, but could not find him anywhere. He then alerted the family members who in turn informed the police, according to reports. “A dog squad was used (on the bridge). It stopped at a point in the middle of the bridge. Local fishermen are helping in the search,” the driver stated.

Right before he went missing, the businessman had apparently written a letter to board members and employees, which has been accessed by a famous news agency. “I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts. I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend,” his note read.

Taking responsibility for every financial transaction of the company, Siddhartha stated that the law should hold only him accountable as he had withheld the information from everyone, including his family. Further adding that his intention was to never cheat anybody, but that he had simply failed as an entrepreneur, he had apologized to everyone in the note. Search operations to trace Siddhartha are currently underway.