CCD confirms authenticity of letter as I-T Dept denies

The Coffee Day Enterprises, whose founder and chairman VG Siddhartha has disappeared and is suspected to have committed suicide, has confirmed the authenticity of the letter circulating on social media as the last letter by him to the board of the company.

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“The board also reviewed a copy of the letter purportedly signed by Mr V. G. Siddhartha dated July 27, 2019, and has shared a copy of the letter with relevant authorities,” the company said in a BSE filing.

The company also said that the board has also sought the assistance of local and state authorities, who are doing their utmost, and relevant officers of the company are cooperating with the authorities as requested.

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On the other hand, the Income Tax Department, which has been on the receiving end after the letter became public, said that there was no harassment by the department. “The authenticity of the note is not known and the signature does not fully tally with VG Siddhartha’s signature as available in his annual reports,” the department said in a note.

Siddhartha, who is also the son-in-law of former chief minister of Karnataka SM Krishna, has been missing since Monday evening as his enterprise battles deep financial crisis.

In the letter dated July 27, Siddartha blames financial troubles and harassment from the IT officials, he states in the alleged letter that, "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 taking the position 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."

The I-T department on Tuesday evening stated in the release that, the investigation in the case of Siddhartha and CCD arose from the search in the case of a prominent political leader of Karnataka. It is based on the unearthing of credible evidence of financial transactions done by the CCD in a concealed manner.