TAX DEPT RAIDS CAFÉ COFFEE DAY OFFICES, FOUNDER’S HOUSE
Income-tax officials on Thursday raided over 25 offices and plantations of Coffee Day Enterprises, the largest coffee chain in the country, and properties of its promoter V G Siddhartha. Searches were conducted at the headquarters in Bengaluru and its offices in Mumbai and Chennai, besides plantations in Chickmagalur in Karnataka. Siddhartha, who is one of the country’s top exporters of coffee, is son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna.
Income-tax (I-T) officials on Thursday raided over 25 offices and plantations of Coffee Day Enterprises — India’s largest coffee chain— and its promoter V G Siddhartha’s house.
The I-T department said it was a routine search for unaccounted wealth.
An entrepreneur who opened India’s first cyber cafe in 1998 and launched the brand, Siddhartha is one of the country’s top coffee exporters. He has also invested in IT services firm MindTree and was among the few people who bailed out Infosys when its initial public offering was undersubscribed.
Siddhartha is the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna, who shifted allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party last year. As a back room in-charge, he had helped Krishna and the Congress win the 1999 Karnataka Assembly elections.
Searches were conducted at the coffee retail chain’s headquarters in Bengaluru, offices in Mumbai and Chennai and plantations in Chikkamagaluru, the coffee growing region of Karnataka.
Besides being the largest organised coffee retail chain, the group runs technology parks and special economic zones housing global IT firm Sical Logistics and Coffee Day trading that helps companies with investments. It also runs Serai, which operates three luxury resorts in Karnataka.
The company’s stock plunged over 10 per cent before recovering to close 3.35 per cent down at ~233.8 on the BSE. Investors also exited stock of Sical Logistics, which closed 3.65 per cent lower at ~217.80.