Keep boards in the loop of those whistleblower reports

Five years ago, a whistleblower complaint against Chanda Kochhar, the then-CEO of ICICI Bank, alleged improprieties in the bank's lending practices and conflicts of interest (as her husband was an alleged middleman) in a loan granted to Videocon Group.

- M. MUNEER & RALPH WARD

ICICI's board initiated an independent inquiry after an initial refusal to admit any wrongdoing, and involved a former Supreme Court judge, who too found no basis for the allegations. However, Chanda eventually stepped down amid mounting concerns-a victory of sorts for a whistleblower against the top leadership.

A year earlier, a whistleblower had alleged that L&T used improper accounting practices to boost profits. Its board initiated an internal investigation and found no evidence of wrongdoing, and the company remained publicly traded without any significant legal or regulatory repercussions.

Two years later, a whistleblower accused Sun Pharmaceuticals of corporate governance lapses, including insider trading, improper financial dealings and lapses in regulatory compliance. The company's board formed a special panel to investigate and acknowledged that some regulatory queries existed, but denied any wrongdoing. It attributed the concerns raised to complexities of the pharmaceutical industry.

The same year, a Vedanta whistleblower accused it of violating environmental laws in mining, among other related issues. Here too, the board initiated an inquiry and maintained that its operations complied with all environmental laws.