Billionaire coffee tycoon V G Siddhartha, who went missing since Monday, is dead and his body was recovered from the banks of the Nethravathi river near Mangaluru in Karnataka on Wednesday.
59-year-old Siddhartha, son-in-law of BJP leader and former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, was cremated in a sombre atmosphere after hundreds of people paid a tearful homage to the 'Coffee King" at his Chetanahali estate in his ancestral village in Chikkamagaluru where hundreds of people gathered to pay their last respects.
Siddhartha, whose chain of cafes helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage, is survived by his wife Malavika and two sons,Amartya and Ishaan.
A police official said "everything" points to suicide, but nothing can be ruled out until the investigation is over.
Siddhartha's body was found by local fishermen and patrolling policemen, two days after he went missing under mysterious circumstances.
His body was identified by his friends, said Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil.
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After the post-mortem at Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru, the body was taken to Chikkamagaluru.
Amartya lit the funeral pyre after the last rites were performed according to the traditions of the Vokkaliga community from which Siddhartha hailed.
The atmosphere turned sombre as Amartya lit the pyre. The youth broke down several times while performing the rituals. Krishna, 87 and his wife Prema too fought hard to control their emotions.
A large number of people from within the coffee estate and neighbouring villages, whom Siddhartha had helped come up in life, thronged to pay their homage.
Before Chethanahalli, the body was kept at Chikkamagaluru for people to pay their last respects.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, his predecessor H D Kumaraswamy and several political leaders attended the funeral.
The remains of Siddhartha was traced after 36 hours of an intensive search operation with a letter allegedly written by him to the Board of Directors and employees of his company Coffee Day Enterprises, showing he was struggling with financial problems due to debt, taxes and share buy backs.
The search involved multiple agencies, which scoured the waters under a bridge across Nethravathi, where Siddhartha, the founder of India's largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day, was reportedly last seen on Monday night, officials said.
Borrowing Rs five lakh from his father to pursue his dreams, Siddhartha, known for being shy and self-effacing, went on to become "coffee king", creating jobs for thousands of youth instead of joining the family business.
The family owned over 350 acres of coffee estate and had been in the business for over 140 years.
A senior police official told PTI, "Investigation is going on. Prima facie every thing points out to that (suicide) only. But we still we can't rule out anything. We will have to finish the investigation".
"We have found the body..... I have no words to comfort the family," Yediyurappa said in Bengaluru.
"He had more assets than liabilities," Yediyurappa added.
Senthil said the body was spotted by local fishermen and police, who had been patrolling the banks of the river.
The authorities predicted the probable location where the body could be traced using a "model" developed by Hyderabad based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), which makes predictions based on current, low and high tide among other parameters, he said.
A political war also broke out over Siddhartha's allegation of harassment by the Income Tax Department, as the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of betraying the people who voted for an independent and hassle-free economy.
"There is an old notion of government has no business in business and Modi in his pre 2014 election campaign made a big deal about it. Today he has absolutely betrayed the people who voted for him to see a robust, independent, hassle free economy," Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said on Twitter.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said Siddhartha's death reflected a "worrying trend".
"Ease of Doing Business" under BJP translates into "Ease of Ending Business". The #VGSiddhartha tragedy reflects the worst of a broader, deeply worrying trend," he tweeted.
Reacting to Siddhartha's death, the Karnataka Congress said on Twitter, "Result of harassment by IT officials and decline of India's entrepreneurial position turning virulent by the day, with Tax Terror & collapse of economy."