indo-asian news service
Bangalore, August 29: In a strong rebuttal to the personal attacks on him by the previous Board of software major Infosys, Founder N.R. Narayana Murthy on Tuesday alleged that its former Chairman R. Seshasayee had lied to the company’s shareholders at its 33rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) here July 24.
“In the AGM, Seshasayee lies about the reason for payments made to the ex-CFO (Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal) claiming it was made in consideration of his (Bansal) long service and to protect the company from its secrets being compromised,” said Murthy in a statement to global institutional investors in a conference call from here.
“In reality, it was paid to protect to the secrets of the CEO and the Board,” he said, 10 days after the previous Board blamed him for the resignation of the company’s first non-founder CEO Vishal Sikka on August 18.
Seshasayee resigned from the Board August 24, paving way for the return of co-founder Nandan Nilekani as the non-Executive Chairman in his place. Previous Board Co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan also resigned along with Independent Directors Jeffery S. Lehman and John Etchemendy.
Seshasayee, 69, who has been an Independent Director on the Board since January 2011, was appointed non-Executive Chairman June 5, 2015, after incumbent KV Kamath resigned to head the BRICS New Development Bank. Earlier, Seshasayee was Managing Director of Ashok Leyland in Chennai for over a decade..
