Just a few days after news surfaced that Indigo promoters have called it a truce, co-founder Rakesh Gangwal called the earlier media reports “planted” and wrote a letter to the board of directors maintaining that the issues between him and InterGlobe Limited are not over yet. Dissing media reports, Gangwal said that the reports left misleading information and false impression that the issue between promoters is over. Rakesh Gangwal also said that the issues on RPTs and changes to the Articles do not have the support of both promoter groups. “I am ” … unable to support the resolution in the absence of the complementary Board resolution on the Articles and the RPT policy”,” Gangwal said. The disagreement on related-party transaction (RPT) policy and board composition still persist between the Indigo promoters, according to a BSE filing. InterGlobe Aviation has acknowledged the receipt of Rakesh Gangwal’s letter and said that the board has sent a copy to regulatory body SEBI, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, and BSE and NSE. Further, InterGlobe has been advised by SEBI to comment on Gangwal’s letter. 

Rakesh Gangwal has even set up a website to put rebuttals and provide updates on the governance matters at the airline. Gangwal and his associates hold over 36% stake in the domestic carrier. “If important and necessary, I shall put out certain relevant information or statements on this website to either update shareholders, the press and all other stakeholders or correct misinformation and false narratives that unnamed “sources” plant in the press,” Gangwal wrote. However, InterGlobe said that the website is not authorised by the company. “No reliance should be placed on the contents of this website as it may contain incomplete and therefore misleading information,” InterGlobe added.  

Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia have been embroiled in a public spat over Related Party Transactions and the former has accused Rahul Bhatia’s InterGlobe of serious governance lapses at the airline. Early in July 2019, Rakesh Gangwal wrote a 14-page letter to capital markets regulator Sebi to voice the same. His primary concern was the excess control that IndiGo’s parent company InterGlobe exercises over crucial matters and decisions in India’s largest airline IndiGo. Gangwal even went to the extent of saying that a “paan ki dukaan” would have handled the matters with more grace.