Govt agencies, banks can drive anyone to despair: Mallya on CCD founder VG Siddhartha
Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing extradition proceedings in the UK, on Wednesday took to Twitter to draw parallels with the case of Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha.
Asserting that he is devastated with the contents of Siddhartha's letter, Mallya said that the Indian "government and banks can drive anyone to despair".
He gave his own example and called Indian financial institutions as 'vicious and unrelenting'.
“I am indirectly related to VG Siddhartha. Excellent human and brilliant entrepreneur. I am devastated with the contents of his letter. The Govt Agencies and Banks can drive anyone to despair. See what they are doing to me despite offer of full repayment. Vicious and unrelenting,” Mallya tweeted.
Siddhartha, the son-in-law of BJP leader SM Krishna, was under the scanner of the income tax department and Enforcement Directorate for alleged irregularities in his association with information technology company Mindtree Ltd.
Meanwhile, The Karnataka Congress also grieved over the death of the businessman, saying it is a result of harassment by IT officials and a decline of India’s entrepreneurial position turning virulent by the day, with Tax Terror & collapse of economy.
VG Siddhartha's body has been recovered from Netravati river near Mangaluru after a 35-hour extensive search. VG Siddhartha, son-in-law of SM Krishna, went missing on Monday. His body was found near the Hoige Bazaar.
Siddhartha left Bengaluru on Monday afternoon to Sakleshpur near Hassan where he has a house and one of his coffee estates. As it was on way to Mangaluru, he told his car driver Basavaraj Patil to drive towards Mangaluru after a short break at Sakleshpur to fresh-up. But did not return.
VG Siddhartha has apparently left behind to his employees a letter now doing the rounds on the social media.
In the letter addressed to the 'Board of Directors and Coffee Day family', VG Siddhartha has apologised for having failed to create the right profitable business model despite his best efforts.
READ | 'Failed as an entrepreneur, I am sorry': VG Siddhartha in letter to Cafe Coffee Day family
"I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. 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 shores, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend," reads the letter from VG Siddhartha.
The coffee baron in his letter requested everyone associated with the business to be strong and to continue running these businesses with a new management.
“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 are 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,” he added.
VG Siddhartha said he has failed as an entrepreneur and his intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody.
“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,” he said.
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