Vijay Mallya cites VG Siddhartha's death to attack banks & agencies, says 'See what they're doing to me...'

Soon after Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha's was found dead and his body was found at the banks of the Netravati backwaters in Mangaluru, fugitive offender Vijay Mallya said that he is indirectly related to Siddhartha. Expressing his point on Twitter, Mallya said that he is devastated after reading his letter. Mallya was referring to the letter written by Siddhartha dated July 23 in which he had alleged that he is facing harassment by the I-T officials. 

Citing his own example, which can be called a rather insensitive comparison, Mallya accused the govt agencies and banks of driving people to a point of hopelessness and despair. He claimed that they are doing the same with him. He called the process 'vicious and unrelenting'.

READ: Vijay Mallya Rages As Netizens Call Him Out In Picture Of Meeting With West Indies' Chris Gayle

VG Siddhartha dead

CCD founder VG Siddhartha's body was found from the backwaters of Netravati River in Mangaluru. It was then sent for post mortem to Wenlock Hospital.

As per sources, 2-3 kilometre away from where Siddhartha was last seen a body was found even before the rescue operation resumed on July 31. The body was found in the backwaters of the Netravati river. Siddhartha was missing since Monday evening after he went with his driver enroute Bengaluru. However, as per his driver's statement to Police, he was asked him to change the route to Mangaluru. 

READ: Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha's body found on the banks of Netravati River in Mangaluru

ED investigation on Vijay Mallya

An investigation carried out by Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed that proxy firms linked to the fugitive had a turnover of over Rs 220 crore. It is Mallya’s close aides like V Shashikant who have been running the business on his behalf. The ED has carried out search and seizure operation on the residential and business premises of an alleged close associate V Shashikant in Bengaluru, sources said. Shashikant was also questioned in Mumbai on Monday. V Shashikant was an employee of Vijay Mallya group till February 2017 and was executive assistant to him for nine years. V Shashikant was also managing director of United Breweries Holdings Ltd (UBHL). 

Republic TV has accessed email conversation between Mallya’s London assistant Daljit Mahal and Shashikant. Whatsapp conversation between Mallya and Shashikant, accessed by Republic TV, also indicates that the two proxies were running the business on Mallya’s behalf.

At the other side, the UK home office and the Westminster Court has last year ordered the extradition of embattled Liquor Baron Vijay Mallya to India over money-laundering and fraud in his home country. He is accused of causing loses of up to Rs 9,000 to Indian banks. Furthermore, he was branded as the first fugitive economic offender by a Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai earlier this year, after an appeal by the Enforcement Directorate.

Here is the full letter by VG Siddhartha (that Mallya was reffering to):

To our Board of directors and Coffee Day family, 

After 37 years, with strong commitment to hard work, having directly created 30,000 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. 

I would like to say I have given it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I have given 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. Tremendous pressure from other lenders lead to me succumbing to the situation. There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG income tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taken possession of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch.

I sincerely request each of you to be strong and to continue running these businesses with a new management. I am solely responsible for all mistakes. Every financial transaction is my responsibility. My team, auditors and senior management and totally unaware of all my transactions. The law should hold me and only me accountable, as I have withheld this information from everybody including my family.

My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody. I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submission. I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me. 

I have enclosed a list of our assets and tentative value of each asset. As seen below our assets outweigh our liabilities and can help repay everybody.