In a major development, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, former Indian Institute of Science (IISC) director Balram, and 16 others have been booked under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The case was registered at the Sadashiv Nagar police station in Bengaluru on the directions of the 71st City Civil and Sessions Court (CCH). Complainant Durgappa, who belongs to the tribal Bovi community, was a faculty member at the Centre for Sustainable Technology at the Indian Institute of Science (IISC).
Durgappa claimed that he was lured into a false honey trap in 2014 and was later fired from his job. He alleged that he was caste-basedly insulted and threatened. Other accused in this case are Govindan Rangarajan, Sridhar Warrier, Sandhya Vishwashvaraiah, Hari KVS, Dasappa, Balaram P, Hemalatha Mishy, Chattopadhyay K, Pradeep D Sawkar and Manoharan.
Who is Kris Gopalakrishnan?
Kris Gopalakrishnan is one of the co-founders of Infosys. He worked as the CEO and MD of Infosys from 2007 to 2011. After this, he was the Vice President of the company from 2011 to 2014. Apart from this, he was elected President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14 and also played an important role in the World Economic Forum (CII) in 2014. The Government of India has also honored him with Padma Bhushan for his services.
Kris Gopalakrishnan has a master's degree in Physics and Computer Science from IIT, Madras. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAI) and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) of India.
Responding to the case, Mohandas Pai, former Infosys CFO appealed for fairness in legal proceedings. "This is very wrong. Govt should ensure that innocent people in governing boards are not wrongly charged like this," he said, adding that the rights of all should be protected.