New Delhi: As Cafe Coffee Day owner, VG Siddhartha's body was found on the banks of Netravati river in Karnataka and duly cremated on Wednesday, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax in Bengaluru, BR Balakrishnan silently retired from his post.
In his letter to the Coffee Day board of directors, Siddhartha had claimed that he was being harassed by the "previous DG income tax", in the form of attaching shares to allegedly block a deal with IT company Mindtree.
At the time Siddhartha is referring to, Balakrishnan was the Director-General of Income Tax Investigation in Bengaluru and was in charge of a probe into Cafe Coffee Day, which allegedly revealed a concealed income of around Rs 650 crore.
In September 2017, IT-sleuths raided premises of the coffee shop chain, which had allegedly revealed tax-related irregularities in the company's functioning.
And just months before that, IT-investigation had raided premises of Congress leader DK Shivakumar in Karnataka, allegedly recovering close to Rs 300 crore worth of undisclosed income. At the time, the raids were alleged to be politically motivated.
The DGIT of investigation overlooks all investigations by the IT department in the concerned zone.
Siddhartha, in his letter to his directors, had said that income tax was harassing him and his company "although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch".
In fact, police authorities in Mangaluru are expected to speak to Balakrishnan with regards to the mysterious disappearance and death of the man who created the cafe culture in India.