CCD founders suicide: Police to probe exact cause
Mangaluru, Aug 27: With the final forensic report confirming Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha's death was suicide, the city police investigating the case has begun the second phase of the probe to find out the exact reason that forced the business magnate to take the extreme step.
The Police team was examining the letter written by Siddhartha before he ended his life last month, which can lead to obtaining definite clues on the reasons for the suicide, police sources said.
Mangaluru Police Commissioner P S Harsha had on Monday said the final Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report received by the police corroborated the suicide theory.
Police sources said the officials were also collecting information about his family life, business dealings, loans, shares and details of bank accounts.
They will also look into notices served on Siddhartha by the Income Tax and other departments and whether he was under pressure dealing with tax authorities, the sources added.
Siddhartha, who ran the hugely successful cafe chain that helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage in the country, had gone missing from the Netravati river bridge near Ullal in Mangaluru on July 29 evening.
He had asked his driver to stop on a bridge while driving toward here and asked him to wait for him as he walked on the bridge alone. Two days later, his body was found floating in the river.
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Uttarakhand Assembly passes censure motion against opposition over women's reservation bill
Dehradun (PTI): The Uttarakhand Assembly passed a censure motion against the Congress and other opposition parties on Tuesday for allegedly blocking the passage of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, in Parliament.
The motion, which expressed the House's formal disapproval of the opposition's conduct, triggered a massive uproar by Congress members, leading to the adjournment of the House sine die.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Subodh Uniyal moved the censure motion, citing the "uncooperative attitude" of opposition parties toward the bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies.
Addressing a special daylong session convened specifically to discuss "Nari Samman -- Rights in Democracy", Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the bill's passage would have benefitted every political party.
Dhami noted that after delimitation, the number of Assembly seats in the hill state would have gone up to 105, with 35 reserved for women. He added that the number of Lok Sabha seats from Uttarakhand would have risen from five to seven or eight.
"The opposition fears that if women from ordinary households enter politics, the shops of dynastic politics run by certain parties will shut down," the chief minister claimed.
He compared the opposition's conduct in Parliament to the assembly in Mahabharat where Draupadi was insulted. Dhami further likened the opposition's behaviour to the "arrogance of Ravan".
The chief minister highlighted his government's initiatives, asserting that Uttarakhand was the first state to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to protect women's rights. He said the UCC freed Muslim women from practices like "halala", "iddat", polygamy and child marriage.
Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya questioned the technical feasibility of the bill, calling the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) claims of providing reservation by 2029 "misleading".
He argued that the bill is linked to census and delimitation processes. The Congress leader said the 2026 census would conclude by 2027 and the final data publication would take two more years.
"The delimitation process will take another six years. The actual implementation of this bill is not possible before 2034," Arya said, describing the move as a strategy to protect the BJP's "political ground".
The session also saw high drama outside the Assembly gates, where Congress MLA Virendra Jati staged a protest, demanding the payment of "outstanding" dues to farmers by sugar mills.
Jati arrived at the Assembly's main gate with a tractor-trolley loaded with sugarcane and dumped it on the road. The move brought the traffic to a halt, prompting traffic and security personnel to intervene and clear the area.
Women Congress workers also staged a demonstration against the "anti-people policies" of the state government.
