'Inquisition': Siddhartha's death fuels India Inc's anger against crackdown

A letter attributed to Cafe Coffee Day founder V.G. Siddhartha blames tax authorities for 'harassment'.

The apparent suicide of coffee baron V.G. Siddhartha, under investigation by tax authorities, has inflamed anger towards the government among business leaders who feel it is going too far in its crackdown on fraud and tax evasion.

Drastic measures taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration include stringent action to enforce tax compliance, probes into bank lending practices and threatening auditors with five-year bans for alleged lapses in their work.

In particular the push by tax collectors has been labelled 'tax terrorism' by T.V. Mohandas Pai, a former director of IT giant Infosys Ltd, even before the Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd founder