BENGALURU: On Tuesday, former external affairs minister and BJP leader S.M. Krishna, as always, remained gracious with every neta, celeb, bureaucrat, police officer or relative who called on him to enquire about his son-in-law, V G Siddhartha, but could not hold back tears with his emotional one-liner "God plays games... it's difficult to understand why."
His home, "Shambavi", was crammed with visitors since the early hours, but a distraught Mr Krishna shuffled between the living room, where he met guests, and the dinning hall, where Mrs Malavika, her sons Amarthya, 23, and Eshan, 21, Mrs Prema Krishna and others were awaiting a word about Mr Siddhartha. While former minister D.K. Shivakumar rushed in and out of Mr Krishna's residence since early hours, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, former chief ministers Siddaramaiah, Jagadish Shettar and H D Kumaraswamy, and scores of former ministers, Members of Parliament, legislators, actors and others visited the veteran leader through the day. Some like B L Shankar, former chairman of the Legislative Council, stayed put all day updating relatives and former staff of Mr Krishna about rescue teams which fanned out on the river Nethravati.
Not finding Siddhartha anywhere, the officials and family members held a discussion and decided to lodge a complaint with the police.
Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil who is supervising the rescue operations, said a dog squad was used during the search. "It stopped in the middle of the bridge. We are contacting all those to whom he spoke to before he went missing," he said. Four teams have been formed by the police chief to probe the shocking incident from all angles. Sources said that the last tower on which Siddhartha's mobile signal was active was Jeppinamogaru - which is near the bridge where he was last seen.
