Karnataka: V G Siddhartha, founder-owner of Cafe Coffee Day outlets and son-in-law of former Chief Minister S M Krishna, who went missing was suspected to have committed suicide by jumping into Netravati River in Ullal on Monday midnight.

According to the police commissioner, Siddhartha had left Bangalore saying he is going to Sakleshpur. But on way, he told the driver to travel to Mangaluru. On reaching Netravati Bridge at around 6 pm, he got down from the car and told his driver to go ahead and stop. He was talking over the phone.

Police officials are questioning all the people that Siddhartha spoke to on Monday. They are also looking into call record details of his driver.  The CCTV footage is also being examined.

Siddhartha went missing on Monday night near the Nethravathi River in Mangaluru. According to police sources, Siddhartha left Bengaluru informing his family that he was going to Sakleshpur in Hassan district. However, once he left home, he allegedly told his driver to head towards Mangaluru. When they reached the Nethravati Bridge, he was allegedly on a call and informed his driver that he’s taking a walk and would be back. Over an hour after he left, his driver got worried and called his cellphone multiple times but it was switched off. Thereafter, his driver, informed Siddhartha’s family and the police.

Speaking to TNM, Mangaluru Commissioner Sandeep Patil told TNM that the canine squad was deployed and that the dogs stopped at the middle of the 6km long Nethravathi bridge.

In a letter reportedly written by VG Siddhartha to the board, the businessman has said that he failed to create the right profitable business model despite taking best efforts.

“After 37 years, with strong commitment to hard work, having directly created 30,000 jobs in our companies and their subsidiaries, as well as another 20,000 jobs in technology company where I have been a large shareholder since its founding, I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts,” he said in the letter reportedly written by him on July 27.

Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest coffee chain and who also owns Asia’s single largest Coffee estate, is reportedly missing from last evening.

“I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend,” he wrote in the letter to the CCD board. “I would like to say I gave it all, I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me.”