Police try to ascertain veracity of Siddhartha's letter

A team of police officials camping in Bengaluru have collected some documents from the office of Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha in Bengaluru, in order to verify the authenticity of his letter to the directors, Mangaluru Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil said.

He told mediapersons on Thursday that two among the four special police teams formed when Siddhartha had gone missing had been disbanded, after his body was traced near Hoige Bazaar on Wednesday. One of the existing two teams is ascertaining the genuineness of the letter.

"In the next couple of days, we will take the statements of financial officers who have presently gone abroad,” Patil said. On whether the letter, if found genuine, would be considered as a death note by investigating officials, the commissioner of police said it was difficult to elaborate on the next step.

“The course of investigation will be based on post-mortenm report, which is expected to be submitted to the government by Friday, and the authenticity of the letter by Siddhartha to the board of directors," Patil said. On the speculation over Siddhartha’s missing T-shirt, Patil suspected that it may have been swept into the sea by the low tide.

The commissioner denied that there were injury marks on the face and neck region of Siddhartha’s body. “There were no physical injuries,” Patil clarified. Earlier in the day, Patil held discussions with police officers on Siddhartha’s case for three hours.

An unnatural death case was registered and the investigation was handed over to an officer of the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police by Patil. The special teams probing the case will report to the investigating officer, ACP (South) T Kodandarama.

Patil said the missing case registered initially based on the complaint of Siddhartha’s driver Basavaraj Patil was now closed.