Police in India are searching for one of the country’s richest men, the coffee tycoon VG Siddhartha, as fears grow for his safety.
The billionaire owner of the Cafe Coffee Day chain was last seen on Monday night walking across a bridge in the southern state of Karnataka. His chauffeur alerted police when Siddhartha did not return.
Police divers, assisted by local fishermen, searched the Nethravathi River near Mangaluru while senior Karnataka politicians flocked to the tycoon’s home.
Siddhartha set up the Cafe Coffee Day chain in 1996 and quickly became one of the world’s biggest coffee traders. He also owns Asia’s largest coffee plantation.
Siddhartha owns about 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of plantations and his Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company is India’s largest exporter of green coffee. His family has been in the coffee industry for more than 130 years.
Cafe Coffee Day has more than 1,700 stores, mainly in India but also in Malaysia, Egypt, the Czech Republic and Austria. The US chain Starbucks has just 150 stores in India.
Siddhartha is married to Malavika Hegde, the daughter of SM Krishna, a former foreign minister and chief minister of Karnataka, making him one of the country’s best-connected tycoons.
His empire came under pressure after the tax authorities raided company offices in several cities in 2017. Siddhartha was recently in talks with Coca-Cola about selling a large stake in the business, according to reports.
Several media outlets quoted from a letter Siddhartha sent to shareholders on Monday that said: “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 have given up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares.”
Siddhartha, 60, left Bengaluru on Monday night after telling his family he was going to the hill resort of Sakleshpur, reports said. Police told reporters he asked his driver to go to Mangaluru instead.
The driver was told to stop on a bridge near Mangalaru and Siddhartha got out while talking on his mobile phone.
Coffee Day Enterprises shares fell heavily on the Mumbai stock exchange on Tuesday after the company said its chair had not been reachable since Monday evening with authorities alerted. The company said it would “ensure continuity of business” in Siddhartha’s absence.
