New Delhi: CEO Phaneesh Murthy  will be charged for sexually harassing  his  iGates American employee and the  investor relations head  Araceli Roiz, 31 and allegedly making her pregnant, the law firm representing the victim said on Thursday. 

“As a result of Murthys influence over Roiz, she continued the relationship with him and ultimately, Roiz became pregnant with Murthys child. When he discovered this, Murthy pressured Roiz to have an abortion. When she refused, he told her to leave the company, quietly, to protect his position as CEO,” the law firm said in a statement from Oakland in California.

The statement said , in his role as her supervisor, Murthy insinuated into her personal life on the pretext of business necessity. As Roiz was dependent on her job with the company for her basic living expenses,  Murthy conditioned her employment and career advancement opportunities on her entering into a relationship with him.When Roiz tried to free herself from the relationship, Murthy reduced her responsibilities, threatened her employment and pressured her to continue the relationship”.

In this way, Murthy was able to induce Roiz into behaviour and action that she would have found unthinkable at the beginning of her employment. The only reason Murthy was able to engage in these abusive and harassing actions is because he was her employer,” the Aiman-Smiths statement said.

The statement also said that if Murthy had not set up a press conference in which he attempted to make himself look better by lying and insulting Roiz ,she would not have endured the embarrassment and humiliation of making these facts public; however, she has been forced to do so to counter Murthys false statements. He informed  the board of relationship about the affair  when she told him that she would be seeking legal representation and her lawyers  had contacted Murthys counsel.

The law firm said the charge was not only offensive , but also a despicable attempt to blame the victim, who only wanted to continue her career and support her child. Infosys had went for a $3-million out-of-court settlement with Maximovitch, a Bulgarian-American national,  Murthys previous victims, a former employee of IT bellwether Infosys Ltd, who accused Murthy of sexual abuse in 2002,to withdraw the sex lawsuit against Murthy and the company and sacked Murthy later for violating the companys ethical standards and corporate governance.