Bangalore: Former Infosys Director and Prime Mentor of Primentor Inc Phaneesh Murthy on May 11 charged that Infosys Technologies had retained rights of legal action against him, in a out-of-court settlement with a former employee on a sexual lawsuit, in retaliation to a legal battle waged by him against the IT bellwether.

"Regarding the mention of rights of legal action against me, I feel this is in retaliation to the fact that my lawyers have initiated action to retrieve my vested and paid-for shares which Infosys is withholding, and as a result of which I have suffered significant financial losses," Murthy said in a statement issued from Fremont California.

He said personally, he would not have liked an out-of-court settlement of the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Infosys employee Reka Maximovitch, which led to his resignation from the software major.

"From my personal point of view, settlement might not have been the route I would have liked to take, and hence I'm not financially a party to this settlement," Murthy said.

He said Infosys wanted the out-of-court settlement as they had considerable sums at stake due to their forthcoming ADR issue.

"Settlement is one way of handling an issue, and that is the route that has been taken. From an Infosys point of view there may be arguments to close this chapter early, particularly when they are going for an ADR issue with considerable sums at stake," Murthy said.

PTI