As a massive search operation has been launched to find VG Siddhartha, a statement allegedly written by the founder and owner of popular coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day has surfaced. The letter is addressed to the ‘Board of Directors and Coffee Day family’.
In the letter, VG Siddhartha has purportedly apologised for having failed to create the right profitable business model despite his 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,” reads the letter. He goes on to say that he fought for a long time but now he has given up.
“…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,” the letter adds.
VG Siddhartha wrote that he ‘succumbed’ to the situation due to ‘tremendous pressure’ from other lenders. He also alleged that he had been harassed by a former Income Tax official, who blocked his Mindtree deal. He said the harassment led to a ‘serious liquidity crunch’.
In his letter, VG Siddhartha held himself as solely responsible for the financial troubles of his company. He said that he had withheld information from his company and his family. “I am solely responsible for all mistakes. Every financial transaction is my responsibility. My team, auditors and senior management are totally unaware of all my transactions. The law should hold me and only me accountable,” reads the letter.
In further evidence of the deep turmoil that he was facing, CCD owner VG Siddhartha said that ‘he has failed as an entrepreneur’. “My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody. I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submission. I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me,” VG Siddhartha asking for forgiveness.
He ends the letter by saying that he is attaching with it a list of the assets owned by the Coffee Day Enterprise and their tentative values. He concludes that since the company’s assets outweigh its liabilities they will help repay everybody. Cafe Coffee Day retail chain outlets founder VG Siddhartha has been missing since late on Monday from near Mangaluru in Karnataka.
According to the complaint Basavaraj Patil filed at the police station, Siddhartha got down from the car on the bridge across the Nethrvathi river and asked him to wait at the other end of it as he wanted to walk for a while but did not turn up even an hour later. Police suspect Siddhartha would have jumped into the flowing river from the bridge as the driver found him missing in the area.
More than 200 policemen and divers on about 25 boats are 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. Siddhartha is the son-in-law of BJP’s senior leader and state’s former Chief Minister SM Krishna.
