CCD founder missing: Company gates shut, workers pray for VG Siddhartha's safe return

A day after the founder of India's largest Coffee chain 'Cafe Coffee Day' went missing on Monday, the gates of his company 'Coffee Day Global Limited' in Mudigere were foud shut on Tuesday.

Coffee Day Global Limited is a subsidiary unit of Amalgamated Bean Coffee (ABC) Trading company.

VG Siddhartha, the founder of India's largest Coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day who also owns Asia's single-largest coffee estate, is missing since Monday evening.

Praying for safe return of Siddhartha a worker of his company, Chameen told ANI, "If the company is facing any economic crisis; all the workers will donate their salary in order to bring it back on track. I had been working in Coffee Day Limited for four years but now I have been shifted to the main office, ABC Trading Company in Mudigere, Chikkamagaluru district."

Chameen broke into tears while speaking to ANI and wished for Siddhartha's safe return.

A massive search operation involving eight teams of police forces along with the Coast Guard and NDRF have been pressed into the search operation to locate the Cafe Coffee Day founder-owner, V G Siddhartha.

Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada Sasikanth Senthil on Tuesday told ANI: "We are conducting search and rescue operation. Eight teams are conducting search along with Coast Guard and NDRF. We have also asked for support from the Navy, Karwar."

The 58-year-old businessman is also the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna. He went missing since last evening from Mangaluru.

Siddhartha was spotted last on Monday evening at the Netravati bridge where he had gone for a stroll, commissioner of police, Mangalore, Sandeep Patil said on Tuesday.

Senthil, said the police started the search operation at 11 am. "We were intimated at around 9 pm. The search and rescue mission began at 11 pm. We don't have much information on what exactly happened but we are trying to cover all angles. Based on our information we are searching for any signs of life."

"Our focus is now only on search and rescue mission," Senthil added.

Police have deployed dog squads and inflatable boats in the search and have roped in local fishermen to search the river.

Earlier today, Coffee Day Enterprises, the company which owns Cafe Coffee Day chain wrote to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) confirming the absence of its Chairman and Managing Director V G Siddhartha.

A letter written by Siddhartha surfaced today in which he has apologised to people who "put their trust" in him and said he failed to create the right profitable business model despite his best efforts.

He had also said that he was under "tremendous pressure" from one of "the private equity partners".

"Tremendous pressure from other lenders led to me succumbing to the situation," he wrote.

Siddhartha also alleged that he was being harassed by the previous Directorate General, Income Tax which led to him facing a "liquidity crunch".