NEW DELHI: At the centre of the Infosys storm is a $200-million acquisition of a company, Panaya , in 2015. In February this year, anonymous whistle-blower complaints claimed that the acquisition was overvalued. It was alleged that the unusually high severance package to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal, who was not in favour of the acquisition, was not disclosed at that time. Questions were raised on high severance package to general legal counsel of Infosys David Kennedy who allegedly wrote an email to the CEO that he could no longer hide Bansal's severance package.Founder-shareholder NR Naryana Murthy , whom the company board blamed for resignation of CEO Vishal Sikka in a letter to stock exchanges today, has released a letter he wrote to the board on July 8 this year, asking to make public the full reports of investigation into the Panaya deal and high severance packages to top employees. His letter was based wholly on the whistle-blower complaints.Below are the main issues raised by Narayana Murthy in his letter:1. The whistle-blower accuses the Chair of the board, the Chair of the Audit Committee, the Chair of the Remunerations Committee, the entire current independent members of the board (except Dr. Punita Kumar Sinha, Mr. D. N. Prahlad and Mr. D. Sundaram), the CEO, the Chief of Legal, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), Latham and Watkins (LW) and the auditors KPMG of being involved in some manner in this deplorable set of events.2. I had suggested to Mr. Seshasayee on the night of February 12, 2017 (when he was distraught about the whistle-blower complaint, called me around 11.45 pm, and told me that the whistle-blower had accused him, the entire board and the CEO) that proper governance required the company to keep the investigation away from all the accused parties, to invite a set of highly respected outsiders (some of whom could be former independent members of the Infosys board including Prof. Marti Subrahmanyam and Dr. Omkar Goswami), to hire a highly respected international law firm like Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati to work under the supervision of these respected individuals, to conduct the investigation in a transparent manner, to clear the board and the management of all accusations, and to disclose the entire report on the website of the company. He just totally ignored my suggestion for some inexplicable reason.3. Several shareholders who have read the whistle-blower complaint have told me that it is hard to believe a report produced by a set of lawyers hired by a set of accused, such a report giving a clean chit to the accused, and the accused refusing to disclose why they got a clean chit!4. Even if the company does not want to release any of these reports, what prevents the board from answering my questions which are purely based on the whistle-blower accusations and which will, once and for all, clear the air about the special treatment shown to Mr. Rajiv Bansal and Mr. David Kennedy?5. The most worrisome aspect of the whistle-blower accusation is his or her claim that there was an e-mail sent by Mr. David Kennedy to Dr. Vishal Sikka that Mr. Kennedy could not hide the Bansal agreement from the board and the CFO any longer. It is best that the company scotches this accusation either by denying the existence of such an e-mail with proof and clearing the names of both Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Sikka, or by explaining to the shareholders what action was taken against the individuals who hid information from the board and from the new CFO who signs the SOX statement. Let us remember that the whistle-blower mentions even the company auditors as being part of this event.6. Then there is the issue of the Chair of the board, telling shareholders at the Infosys AGM in 2016 that Mr. Bansal had some special secret competitive data and that is why the company wrote an agreement to pay him Rs. 23 Crores. There can be no confidentiality issue in releasing the part of the report that talks about the special secretive competitive data with Mr. Bansal that the investigation has unearthed.7. What were the objections of the former CFO - Mr. Rajiv Bansal regarding Panaya acquisition as evidenced by the three investigations, e-mails and transcripts of mobile conversations obtained from mobile carrier companies?8. Can the company categorically deny that any employee and /or his / her relative (spouse, father, mother, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces, children, spouse's father, mother, sisters, brothers, nephews and nieces) benefitted personally in the Panaya acquisition?9. If that data is not accessible since some of them may have invested in a VC which in turn invested in Panaya, can the company get the VC firms to confirm whether any such named-relative of any named-employee held shares in Panaya at the time of acquisition by Infosys without disclosing any financial or shareholding details? Some well-wisher shareholders believe that any international payment today requires firms to do adequate diligence on the ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs).10. The whistle-blower contends that there was an e-mail from Mr. David Kennedy, the then General Legal Counsel of Infosys, to the CEO of Infosys that he could not hide the Rajiv Bansal agreement any longer. The whistle-blower alleges that the auditors (KPMG) unearthed this email and brought it to the attention of the Chair, the Legal Counsel and the CEO. This is a very serious allegation. Is this true? Can the auditors tell us if this is true? Can the company answer the following additional questions (supported by e-mails, mobile transcripts and data)?11. If the e-mail referred to in 03 does exist, given that Mr. David Kennedy hid an important and unusual severance payment agreement with the former CFO between October 2015 and January 2016, what action was taken against him? Is hiding critical information even from the incoming CFO who signs the SOX statement a part of the General Counsel's duty at Infosys since the date the founders left the company voluntarily? If not, why was not Mr. David Kennedy asked to leave the company in January itself? Why was this decision delayed till he resigned on his own in December 2016, nearly a year later? Why was a special severance agreement worked out with Mr. David Kennedy who is supposed to have hidden an important agreement from the board and the from new CFO (who had to make a provision for any such payment) till he was forced to disclose it to the board by the new CFO? Has the culture of the company changed (since the founders left) to reward people who hide information from the board.12. Did the GDC report justify a separate severance agreement to pay nearly one million dollars made with Mr. David Kennedy when he resigned even though there was already an employment contract? Why was a special 12-month severance allowed for Mr. David Kennedy when the norm was just 3 months in the company? If the e-mail from Mr. Kennedy to the CEO did indeed exist, should Mr. Kennedy not have been dismissed without any severance since he committed a big mistake by hiding information from the board?