Coffee Day Enterprises Limited, the owner of the Cafe Coffee
Day chain, appointed former founder and Chairman VG Siddhartha’s wife Malavika
Hegde as its Chief Executive Officer on Monday, more than a year later Siddhartha
was found dead in a river in southern India in what many doubt to be a suicide,
Reuters reported.

Coffee Day Enterprises, immediately after the death of
Siddhartha, named SV Ranganath as interim chairman in July, 2020. Siddhartha’s
body was discovered in a river near Mangaluru in the same month.

Cafe Coffee Day run operations around India, currently
competing with companies such as Starbucks, Barista and partially Coca-Cola
owned Costa Coffee with a variety of selections for the burgeoning middle class
of the country.

Recognised as one of the country’s early venture capital
investors, Siddhartha largely brought the café culture in a country mostly
known for its sea-sipping habits.

Immediately after his death, Coffee Days shares crashed and
eventually the company was suspended from trading since February 3.