Bengaluru: Coffee Day Enterprises appointed its independent Director and retd. IAS Officer S.V. Ranganath as the Interim Chairman of the company yesterday. The decision was taken after the Coffee Day’s Founder V.G. Siddhartha, who had gone missing from July 29, was confirmed dead yesterday.

The Board of Directors, who met yesterday, also appointed Nitin Bagamane as the interim Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas as the company’s legal Counsel. Apart from that, an Executive Committee, comprising Ranganath, Nithin Bagmane and CFO R. Ram Mohan, was appointed to look into the functioning of the company.

S.V. Ranganath, a 1975-batch IAS officer from Karnataka, has held many offices and was also the Chief Secretary of Karnataka between 2009 and 2013.

Last rites held

The Dakshina Kannada Police recovered the body of Siddhartha from the backwaters of Nethravathi River at around 6.30 am yesterday after conducting an intense search for about 36 hours since July 29. 

Later, the body was taken to Siddhartha’s coffee estate in Chikkamagaluru were the last rites were preformed. Siddhartha’s sons Amartya and Ishan lit the funeral pyre in the presence of their mother Malavika, other relatives and friends.

Prior to this, CM B.S. Yediyurappa, former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy, former Dy.CM R. Ashoka, former Ministers D.K. Shivakumar, S.R. Mahesh, T.C. Thammanna, H.K. Patil, Ramanath Rai, MLAs C.T. Ravi, H.K. Kumaraswamy, disqualified MLA Dr. K. Sudhakar, former MP R.L. Shivaramegowda and former Police Officer Annammalai paid their last respects.