CCD promoter Siddhartha's disappearance case: Police team leaves for Bengaluru
Mangaluru, Jul 30: As mystery shrouds Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha's disappearance, Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil Tuesday said a police team has left for Bengaluru to conduct an inquiry and question office staff and relatives.
Asked about the letter purportedly written by Siddhartha to the Board of Directors, the commissioner told reporters "Siddhartha's family gave us the letter, so it has to be genuine.
We are inquiring into its contents also, for which a team has gone to Bengaluru," Patil said as the search for the businessman continued.
Patil said the team that has gone to Bengaluru will conduct an inquiry of the office staff and relatives and gather all information.
"A detailed technical investigation is also going on," he said.
Siddhartha had left from Bengaluru to Sakleshpur in Hassan district on Monday afternoon, but he asked his driver to turn towards Mangaluru on the way, according to police.
He was last seen near a bridge on Netravati river in Dakshina Kannada district on Monday night.
He had told his driver he was going for a walk near the bridge, police said.
"He (Siddhartha) asked the driver to wait till his arrival. When he did not return even after two hours, the driver approached the police and lodged a missing complaint," Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district Senthil Sasikant Senthil earlier said.
Patil said the police were questioning a fisherman who claimed that he saw someone jumping from the bridge.
Search operations were on at the place identified by the fisherman, he said.
Call Detail Records were also under scrutiny, Patil added.
In the unverified letter, widely circulated in the social media, Siddhartha alleged there was a lot of harassment from the previous DG of the Income Tax Department in the form of attaching "our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Coffee Day shares, although revised returns have been filed by us (sic)".
"This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch," the letter, bearing a purported signature of Siddhartha, said.
The department has refuted the charges.
"I have failed as an entrepreneur."
"...I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts," Siddhartha, who built the coffee empire over the last 37 years, said in the letter.
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GBA razes down 400 houses in Yelahanka, minority families including Muslims worst affected
Bengaluru: In an incident reported from the state capital, more than 3,000 people living in Fakir Colony of the Kogilu Layout near Yelahanka were rendered homeless by the officials of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) on Saturday.
The officials, who said the 400 houses were constructed on encroached land, held the operation using nine tractors and nine earthmovers, razing down the houses.
They have ousted around 90 per cent of the families who had been living in the area for more than 30 years and belong to minority communities, including Muslims from the colony.
The bereaved residents have insisted that the government had provided them land in the locality to build houses and reside. “We have all official documents as well as Aadhaar cards and voter IDs as proofs. Our source of livelihood is only manual labour,” they added.
“Many of the families had mortgaged the houses to get loans from banks, but the GBA officials have razed our houses without giving any prior notice,” they said and added, “Some of the women here are pregnant, but the officers showed no concern for such people too.”
Referring to the title deeds, the residents said that the local representatives had assured them that they would be handed the documents. “So far, however, we were not told to vacate the houses. Since the houses were unexpectedly razed, our children’s documents and other valuables in the houses have been destroyed,” the residents added angrily.
They also expressed fury about representatives failing to come to their help in times of need. “They come here only to campaign and get our votes. When questioned about the propriety of destroying the houses, the police officers assaulted us,” some of them said.
Sara Saif Saufique, one of the residents in the Fakir Colony, said, “My family has been living here for three decades, but has unexpectedly lost the house since the officers did not give us notice. They came at around 4:30 am on Saturday, when we were sleeping, and started destroying the houses.”
She said with fury, further, “The officials also forcibly evicted us from the houses, without even permitting us to gather our winterwear or blankets.”
