Mamata Banerjee expresses her shock over VG Siddhartha's death, slams Centre

"I am deeply shocked by the incident relating to V G Siddhartha, Coffee Cafe Day founder. It is indeed very sad and very unfortunate," she tweeted.

She said: "From what he has expressed, it appears that he was greatly depressed due to harassment and pressure from different agencies for which he could not run his business in a peaceful manner. This he could not resist."

Targeting the Centre over the issue, Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "I hear from different sources that captains of industry in the country are under pressure; some of them have left the country and some are contemplating to move out. All the opposition political parties are afraid of horse trading and harassment with political vendetta."

Mamata Banerjee said: "On one hand, the economic growth of the country has nosedived to as low as 5.8% in the fourth quarter of 2018/19, the lowest in the last 5 years, and unemployment has increased to the highest level in the last 45 years. (4/9)."

Mamata Banerjee said the economy of the country is in a 'bad shape'.

"On the other hand, central government is actively pursuing disinvestment of government assets, from Ordnance Factory Board to BSNL, from Air India to Railways, from Chittaranjan Locomotive Works to Alloy Steel Plant, Durgapur and about 45 more public sector undertakings," she said.

"The overall economy is in bad shape with the common people suffering the most," she said.

  She said :"My appeal to the government is that when you have been elected, you have to work in a peaceful manner so that people are confident and that political vendetta and agencies do not destroy the future of the country. (8/9)."

Police have recovered the body of businessman VG Siddhartha, who has been missing for the past two days, from the banks of the Netravathi River in Karnataka’s Mangaluru area on Wednesday, media reports said.

VG Siddhartha, who is the son-in-law of BJP leader SM Krishna, is the founder of popular coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day.

He went missing on Monday.

“Around 6am today we found a body in the Hoige Bazaar area and we are trying to confirm if it is Siddhartha. We have informed his family and we have also sent the body to Wenlock Hospital to complete formalities. Our investigation will continue,” Mangaluru’s commissioner of police Sandeep Patil was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

A massive team of 100 firefighters, 100 policemen, 50 divers, 50 fishermen and 30 boats earlier conducted a search operation find the businessman.

VG Siddhartha was the son-in-law of BJP leader SM Krishna.

According to The News Minute report, a fisherman named Ritesh on a trawler boat found the body when he cast his net into the waters. Since the police had informed fishermen to keep an eye out, Ritesh suspected that the body could have been Siddhartha's and immediately informed a local resident (Ashwath), who subsequently intimidated the local corporator Diwakar Pandeshwar and then the trio informed the local police.

Siddharth's body has been sent to hospital for post-motem.