(The reactions in the story were recorded prior to the confirmation of CCD owner-founder VG Siddhartha’s death. Siddhartha’s body was recovered on Wednesday, 31 July, after he went missing on 29 July. The body has been sent for post-mortem.)
The disappearance of Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha and the letter purportedly written by him to his staff shocked people, many of whom expressed their anguish on Twitter.
Congress leader from Karnataka, DK Shivakumar, who has known Siddhartha and his family for many years, said that he finds it “unbelievable that a courageous man like him (Siddhartha) would resort to this”.
Shivakumar has also alleged that there is something “fishy” about the entire episode.
Several other Congress leaders also tweeted saying that there is more to the entire episode.
Maharashtra Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam asked if the founder of a success story like Cafe Coffee Day says that he had failed, what was the reason for the failure?
Congress’ national media panelist Shama Mohamed, meanwhile, said that harassment by tax officials could have something to do with what Siddhartha had allegedly written in the letter.
While Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ghanshyam Tiwari called it a ‘case of tax terrorism.’
“There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG Income-Tax in the form of attache our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has lead to the serious liquidity crunch,” reads the letter that is being attributed to Siddhartha.
‘Harassed By Tax Officials’
Several people tweeted alleging that Siddhartha might have been forced to take an extreme step due to harassment by tax officials.
According to satirist Akash Banerjee, “If these allegations against Income Tax officials hold – then this is could become a case of death due to tax terrorism”.
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