Binny Bansal, Co-founder of Flipkart has recently filed a police complaint against the woman whose allegations have led to his abrupt eviction but later did withdraw the charges.
“Binny Bansal had filed a police complaint against the accuser for blackmailing and levelling false allegations against him. Following due process, the police informed him that when called to furnish her statement, the woman apologised for making these allegations to Walmart,” said a source close to the 35-year-old.
“Hence, Binny Bansal decided not to pursue the complaint further, reserving his rights to reopen the case if and when necessary,” the source said.
ALSO READ: Know how Google Maps ‘is used’ for banking scams
On November 13, Bansal has dropped out from the company under few dramatic circumstances sparking a media circus. He went to the police a few days later. The complaint was filed at Kormangala Police Station.
The Board members of company include Steuart Walton, grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton; Judith McKenna, president at Walmart International, and Dirk Van den Berghe, regional CEO of Walmart Canada and Asia.
Binny’s decision of approaching the police came last week, just after he stepped down from his role being the Group CEO of Flipkart, that he had co-founded in the year 2007 along with Sachin Bansal.
His departure came about after Walmart Inc, a 77% owner in Flipkart, announced that he had been probed for allegations of “personal misconduct”.
All the while, Walmart did not offer any specifics of the allegations those were levelled by the ex-woman employee and also said that the charges were found to be flimsy.
The Walmart investigation in contrast to Binny Bansal did not find “any evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions”, the Bentonville-based company had said in a statement on November 13.
However, “it did reveal other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation,” the statement from the retail leviathan had said.
While the American retail gargantuan has officially declined to the details what these lapses in the judgement were.
It was also earlier reported that Walmart was irked with Bansal for not disclosing the relationship.
Few corporate governance experts even said that since the woman involved was not an employee during the time of relationship and had not filed an official case, Walmart appeared to have been harsh in asking Bansal to leave.
“From a corporate governance perspective, there is nothing amiss. In a relationship outside the office even if personal payments were made, how does it matter? If there’s no court case or FIR filed, this may just amount to a witch hunt,” said the founder of InGovern Research Services, Shriram Subramanian.
“There is no imperative for an individual to reveal his personal relationships even in a case of a due diligence unless it is specifically asked and he has lied.”
The Flipkart Group CEO had entered into the relationship with a Bangalore based woman in the year 2016 that did end after few months.
After the relationship ended on some unpleasant note, the woman had started asking Bansal for the payments said the sources. It is still not understood why Binny Bansal did not approach police at the time.
Some corporate governance experts said since the woman involved was not an employee at the time of the relationship and had not filed an official case, Walmart appeared to have been harsh in asking Bansal to leave.
“From a corporate governance perspective, there is nothing amiss. In a relationship outside the office even if personal payments were made, how does it matter? If there’s no court case or FIR filed, this may just amount to a witch hunt,” said the founder of InGovern Research Services,Shriram Subramanian.
“
There is no imperative for an individual to reveal his personal relationships even in a case of a due diligence unless it is specifically asked and he has lied.”
The CEO of Flipkart Group was into the relationship with a Bengaluru-based lady in 2016, and the relationship ended after a few months.
After the relationship ended, the lady later started asking for payments. It is still not understood why did Bansal not approach police at the time.
It is also understood that Binny Bansal did make the payments in 2016 abd after that the demands for payment became less frequent.
Later, the payment demand did commence again in May 2018 after the Walmart announced its acquisition of a 77 per cent stake in Flipkart at $22 billion valuation.
During acquisition, Binny took the centre stage as he was made the face of the organisation in the absenteeism of Sachin Bansal.