Photo from Binny Bansal twitter

WEB DESK

American multinational retail corporation Walmart, which acquired a majority stake in Flipkart for $16 billion in August, told the US SEC on Tuesday that the Indian e-commerce major’s co-founder and CEO Binny Bansal has resigned over misconduct allegations.

“His decision follows an independent investigation done on behalf of Flipkart and Walmart into an allegation of serious personal misconduct,” Walmart said in a statement, adding that Bansal has strongly denied the allegation.

It is not yet clear what the nature of the allegation is, but news agency Reuters says the Bansal’s resignation stemmed from an allegation of sexual assault that dates back a few years.

The US-based retailer, however, added that the investigation found no evidence to corroborate the allegation against Binny but it did reveal “other lapses in judgment” on his part.

“While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation. Because of this, we have accepted his decision to resign,” Walmart said.

The US brand said Binny has been contemplating a “transition” for some time and they have been working on a “succession plan”, which has now been accelerated.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy will continue to be CEO of Flipkart, Walmart said. “Ananth Narayanan will continue providing great leadership as CEO of Myntra and Jabong, and will report into Kalyan. Sameer Nigam will continue leading PhonePe as CEO. Both Kalyan and Sameer will report directly into the board,” it said.

Binny Bansal denies allegations of personal misconduct

Late evening, Binny Bansal released a letter to the employees of the company, in which he strongly denied the allegations against him. “My decision to step down has been accelerated by certain personal events that have taken place in the recent past,” his letter said.

“These have been challenging times for my family and me. I am concerned that this may become a distraction for the company and the team. In light of these circumstances, I feel, it is best to step away as Chairman and Group CEO,” he reportedly wrote in the email to employees