Depression may have pushed VG Siddhartha to edge

Cafe Coffee Day honcho VG Siddhartha’s death stunned the nation. It has now come to light that there was more to the death than was apparent.
VG Siddhartha
VG Siddhartha

BENGALURU: Cafe Coffee Day honcho VG Siddhartha’s death stunned the nation. It has now come to light that there was more to the death than was apparent. A source close to the family claimed to TNIE that Siddhartha had been depressed for about four months. “He would spend most of his time alone, brooding. He was withdrawn and had stopped talking to his CCD executives for the past few days. This depression may have been compounded by the persistence of the taxman,” the source said.

His family knew about Siddhartha’s condition, as the symptoms were all there, though he never went to a mental health practitioner. Ever since wife Malavika learnt about it, the family looked after him with care, and never let him out of sight. His son Amartya followed him like a shadow, but that day, he wasn’t around, a source disclosed.

It now appears that Siddhartha had it all planned, the source said. He allegedly dictated the letter to his secretary and asked her to release it on Tuesday, indicating that he knew what was going to happen on Monday. He went to work on Monday around 8 am, and on returning home for lunch, made an excuse to drive out. He told Malavika that a friend’s vehicle had met with an accident and he needed help, and that he was going to Sakaleshpur, but instead, he went to Mangaluru.   

When Malavika called the friend, she realised that Siddhartha had not reached, and that his story was a ruse. That’s when she panicked and feared the worst, but it was too late, the source said.

Siddhartha was a student of St Aloysius College in Mangaluru, and knew the city very well. He knew the local suicide point too -- the four-lane bridge that runs about 800 metres across the Netravathi river. The bridge is locally known as ‘suicide point’. Siddhartha got off his vehicle and instructed his driver to wait ahead while he chose to walk along the bridge.

Sources also questioned why the driver had allowed Siddhartha to remain on the bridge for so long after dark, when he had heard him repeatedly apologising to people, and sounded depressed throughout his journey to Mangaluru.

It is also learnt that Siddhartha had reached out to some of his friends the day before he died, but those whom he depended on most were not with him in his hour of need.

Work goes on in coffee company
Two days after the cremation of coffee baron V G Siddhartha, the atmosphere at the ABC Trading Company Chikkamagaluru in was heavy with grief. Though work at various sections are going on without any interruption, the staffers still seems to be in a state of shock.

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