Karnataka: Fisherman claims to have seen CCD founder's body floating in river

A fisherman claims to have seen the body of CCD founder VG Siddhartha's body floating in the river on Wednesday morning. After informing the police, the body was brought on the bank of River Nethravathi at Hoige Bazar.

The fisherman, Ritesh who claims to have found VG Siddhartha's body floating in the river participated in the rescue operation along with the district administration on Tuesday.

"I went fishing today morning and I saw one body floating in the river and informed the police. I saw the body floating at around half a kilometre away from Hoige Bazar river bank and recognised that it was VG Siddhartha's body. Later the body was brought on the river bank," Ritesh told ANI.

"The river merges with the Arabian Sea and if the body would have swayed to the Arabian Sea, it would have been extremely difficult for the rescue team to recover the body," he added.

The 58-year-old businessman is the son-in-law of former Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna and went missing since Monday evening from Mangaluru.

Siddhartha was spotted last Monday evening at the Netravati Bridge where he had gone for a stroll, Commissioner of Police, Mangalore, Sandeep Patil said.

A massive search operation involving multiple teams of police forces along with the Coast Guard and NDRF was being carried out since Tuesday to locate Siddhartha. Police had also deployed the dog squads and inflatable boats in the search operation and roped in local fishermen to search the river.