The allegations made by whistleblowers’ against IT major Infosys took another turn on Wednesday, after a report stated that one of the company’s co-founders and a former senior executive reportedly conspired with the whistleblowers.
However, details around the alleged conspiracy between the whistleblower and the senior Infosys staff has yet to emerge.
A statement that the company put out on Wednesday, issued by Chairman Nandan Nilekani, condemned “the mischievous insinuations made by anonymous sources against the co-founders and former colleagues, suggesting their involvement in the recent whistleblower allegations.”
According to the report, the alleged involvement of the co-founder and former executive has rubbed a lot of people connected to the company the wrong way.
In his statement, Nilekani said that the speculations seemed to be aimed at tarnishing the image of respected individuals.
"I have deep regard for the life-long contribution of all our co-founders. They have built this institution and have served this company selflessly and even today, remain committed to the long-term success of Infosys,” he stated.
This comes just days after the company said that it received no evidence from the whistleblowers after they received the complaints.
A few anonymous employees at Infosys had accused the CEO Salil Parekh and CFO Nilanjan Roy of unethical practices from many quarters, along with concerns on Parekh's travels to the US and Mumbai.
According to the whistleblowers, Parekh directed the employees to cook account books to show favourable numbers and coerced staffers not to reveal crucial data to board members.
The company said that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the top management. "...given the circumstances at this stage, where there is a complete absence of prima facie evidence and the Anonymous Complaints are still under investigation, the Company is not in a position to determine the concreteness, credibility and materiality of the anonymous complaints.”
The company announced that it will share the findings of the investigation conducted by law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. with all the stakeholders.
This seems to have assuaged the stock market since the price of the company’s stock went up by 2%.
The issue is still alive with the Securities & Exchanges Commission (SEC) of the US which has initiated a probe and the Indian counterpart SEBI asking the company to come out with more information in the matter. Infosys had informed the stock exchange first of the whistleblower complaint received by the management.