Mangaluru: Hours after Cafe Coffee Day founder-chairman V G Siddhartha went missing from the Ullal bridge over the Netravati river, the search and rescue operations are being continued in a bid to locate the business tycoon.
It can be recalled that Siddhartha went missing late on Monday night. According to his driver, the businessman alighted the car on the bridge and instructed him to wait at the end of the bridge. He went missing shortly after.
Police launched a search operation for the business tycoon. Dog squads and boats have been pressed into action to locate the missing businessman.
ICGS Rajdoot has also been tasked to patrol off the old Mangalore Port and is maintaining a sharp lookout close to harbour’s mouth for any signs of a body.
ACV (H-198) is undertaking a search operation in the Netrvati river and is providing support to the Coast Guard (CG) diving teams. Presently, three CG diving teams, along with the district Disaster Relief Team, have been deputed to carry out a search for the missing business tycoon.
ICGS Savitribai Phule has been kept on standby for deployment off the old Mangalore port on short notice.
Speaking to a Kannada news channel, Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil informed that a team of investigators have been sent to Bengaluru to find out more details and to speak to Siddhartha’s relatives. The team, led by the CCB PSI, will also visit the missing businessman’s office to gather more information.
He also stated that the police are presently checking the CCTV footage from the vicinity to trace Siddhartha’s last known moments. The police are also checking the Mangaluru International Airport to investigate the possibility that Siddharth might have boarded a flight.
“As and when we get more information about Siddhartha, we will inform the media of the same,” he told the reporters.
It is learnt that the police are presently questioning Siddhartha’s driver Basavaraj Patil as he is the last known person to see him before he went missing.
The compol also stated that the police are investigating three different possibilities. Possibility one- Siddhartha walked away from the bridge; Possibility two- he might have jumped off the bridge and into the river; Possibility three- he left the bridge with a third person to an undisclosed location.
Commissioner Patil stated that right now, their aim is to crack the case, however, he did not make any assurances about finding the missing businessman either dead or alive.
