A former employee of IT giant Cognizant has sued board members of the company for allegedly misleading shareholders about a bribery case in India. The petitioner Ravindra Guyyala, a common stock owner of the company has alleged that the executives and board members issued false, misleading statements as well as omitted material information about the bribe payments in the company's public filings.

Guyyala has filed the lawsuit in the US District Court of Delaware, separate from the ongoing securities class action lawsuit. The petition names CEO Brian Humphries, current CFO Karen McLoughlin, former CEO Francisco D'Souza, former president Gordon Coburn, and former chief legal officer Steven E Schwartz and board members as defendants, as mentioned in a report in The Economic Times.

According to the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), Cognizant allegedly authorised a contractor to pay $2 million bribe to a senior government official for a permit for its new campus in Chennai. The payment as well as $2.5 million reimbursement to the contractor were allegedly authorised by two senior executives at Cognizant's US headquarters, the SEC had stated. The executives had resigned in 2016.

Cognizant -- without admitting or denying the allegations -- had settled the charges with SEC, with disgorgement and prejudgment interest of around $19 million and penalty of $6 million.

Guyyala's lawsuit states that due to their positions as 'employees and/or directors of Cognizant', the defendants would have been privy to information on the company's financial prospects and ongoing issues. It has sought for a jury trial, the daily stated.