BENGALURU: Infosys chief executive officer Vishal Sikka resigned on Friday after being at the helm for a little more than three years, a tenure which had started to show glimpses of revival at India’s second largest software services company but got increasingly messy since last year due to slower revenue growth and a tussle with the founders.Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of the Bengaluru-based company, took charge in 2014 and he will now be succeeded by chief operating officer Pravin Rao , who will be interim-MD and CEO."Dr Sikka reiterated his belief in the great potential of Infosys, but cited among his reasons for leaving a continuous stream of distractions and disruptions over the recent months and quarters, increasingly personal and negative as of late, as preventing management's ability to accelerate the Company's transformation," Infosys said in a filing with the BSE. Shares of the company dropped about 6% and were trading at Rs 960 in morning trade.Read: Full text of Vishal Sikka's resignation letterThe company said the board was distressed by the unfounded personal attacks on the members of our management team that were made in the anonymous letters and have surfaced in recent months. "A series of careful investigations found no merit to the unsubstantiated and anonymous allegations that had been asserted. The board denounces the critics who have amplified and sought to further promote demonstrably false allegations which have harmed employee morale and contributed to the loss of the company's valued CEO," it added.Sikka has been appointed executive vice-chairman and will hold office until the new permanent CEO and MD takes charge, which should be no later than March 31, 2018.Sikka's moves comes a day before Infosys is supposed to have a board meeting to consider a share buyback and after co-founder Narayana Murthy claimed in an email to some of his advisers that he had been told by at least three independent directors of the company that Sikka was more chief technology officer (CTO) material than CEO material."Over the last many months and quarters, we have all been besieged by false, baseless, malicious and increasingly personal attacks. Allegations that have been repeatedly proven false and baseless by multiple, independent investigations. But despite this, the attacks continue, and worse still, amplified by the very people from whom we all expected the most steadfast support in this great transformation," Sikka wrote in a letter to the board.