Indian coffee king, VG Siddhartha, found dead

Bloomberg

VG Siddhartha, the founder of India’s biggest coffee chain, has been confirmed dead days after he purportedly wrote a letter indicating he was anxious about pressure from banks, investors and the tax authorities.
Siddhartha told his driver he was going for a walk, near a bridge close to the southern Indian city of Mangaluru. He was reported missing after he failed to return to the car later that night.
The city’s police commissioner Sandeep Patil said that Siddhartha’s body had been found, but didn’t elaborate on the circumstances of his death.
Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd, the company Siddhartha founded, released a letter purportedly written by him to the board. It talks of
“succumbing to the situation” because of pressure from lenders and one of the company’s private equity partners, as well as harassment by tax officials.
The letter, printed on a white sheet of paper bearing Siddhartha’s name boldly on top and Coffee Day’s address at the bottom, is addressed to the company’s board and employees.
“I gave it my all 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,” according to the letter. The harassment by tax officials and pressure from lenders led to a “serious liquidity crunch.”
Coffee Day’s board appointed SV Ranganath as the interim chairman and Nitin Bagmane as the interim chief operating officer, according to an exchange filing.