VG Siddhartha was victim of 'tax terrorism', alleges Siddaramaiah; calls for fair investigation into death of CCD owner

Bengaluru: Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah called for an “impartial and fair investigation into the death of CCD owner VG Siddhartha”, whose body was found on the banks of a river near Hoige Bazaar in Mangaluru early on Wednesday. He implicitly alleged that Income Tax department acted as a ‘politically motivated institution’ and Siddhartha was a victim of ’tax terrorism’. [caption id=“attachment_4458163” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah. PTI[/caption] “The death of VG Siddhartha is both disturbing and mysterious. The reasons and the invisible hands that ended his life in this tragic way should be unearthed through impartial and fair investigation. Our party and I shall always stand with Shri SM Krishna in their fight for justice”, tweeted Siddaramaiah. “The letter supposed to have written by VG Siddhartha a few days before his death has discussed about tax terrorism, which is an ugly face of politically motivated institutions. What signals are we sending to the budding entrepreneurs without even an attempt to reform?”, he said in a subsequent tweet. Following a massive search operation involving multiple agencies, the body of missing CCD founder-owner VG Siddhartha was found on the banks of Netravati river near Hoige Bazaar in Mangaluru. The 58-year-old businessman is the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna and was missing since Monday evening from Mangaluru. Siddhartha was spotted last Monday evening at the Netravati Bridge where he had gone for a stroll, Commissioner of Police, Mangalore, Sandeep Patil had said. A massive search operation involving multiple teams of police forces along with the Coast Guard and NDRF was being carried out since Tuesday to locate Siddhartha. Police had also deployed the dog squads and inflatable boats in the search operation and roped in local fishermen to search the river. A letter, written by Siddhartha also surfaced on Tuesday in which he apologised to people who “put their trust” in him and said he failed to create the right profitable business model despite his best efforts. He also said that he was under “tremendous pressure” from one of “the private equity partners”. “Tremendous pressure from other lenders led to me succumbing to the situation”, he wrote. Siddhartha also alleged that he was being harassed by the previous Directorate General, Income Tax which led to him facing a “liquidity crunch”.