New Delhi: Outsourcing company iGate Corp on Tuesday sacked its Chief Executive Phaneesh Murthy for not disclosing a relationship with a subordinate and alleged sexual harassment.
Murthy, who was replaced with immediate effect by interim CEO Gerhard Watzinger, was forced to quit India’s second biggest software exporter Infosys Ltd in 2002 following a sexual harassment lawsuit, which was settled out of court.
iGate in a statement said its board engaged outside legal counsel to investigate and found Murthy’s failure to disclose relationship with a subordinate.
“The board deliberated extensively on this matter,” Sunil Wadhwani, co-founder and co-chairman of iGate, said in the statement.
“We recognize the significant contributions Murthy has provided over the past ten years in helping to establish iGATE as a leader in the IT industry… However, as a result of this violation of iGATE policy, we asked Murthy to step down.”
“The Board’s decision was made as a result of an investigation by outside legal counsel, engaged by the Board, of the facts and circumstances surrounding a relationship Murthy had with a subordinate employee and a claim of sexual harassment,” iGATE said in a statement. The investigation, which is ongoing, has reached the finding that Murthy’s failure to report this relationship violated iGATE’s policy, as well as Murthy’s employment contract, it said.
After leaving Infosys, Murthy founded a company that was bought by iGate. In 2011, he teamed up with buyout firm Apax Partners to conduct iGate’s USD 1.2 billion purchase of much-bigger Indian rival Patni Computer Systems.
Meanwhile, sacked iGate CEO has denied the charges of sexual harassment against him and claimed that it was a case of extortion. In an audio conference he said that the all the charges against him were “completely false” and he had not violated any company policy.(Agencies)
