The Board of Directors of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) has come out strongly in support of its two former directors, Ashok Kurien and Manish Chokhani, who had resigned in the wake of corporate governance allegations against them, made by two institutional investors. Zee said, its entire Board stood with the two ex-directors and it condemned the allegations made by two proxy advisory firms — InGovern and IiAS — against Kurien and Chokhani. The advisory firms had asked shareholders not to vote in favour of reappointments of Kurien and Chokhani at the company’s annual general meeting, but the duo resigned a day before the AGM, citing personal reasons.
The Board added that both were long-time directors at Zee, with Kurien being one of the original promoters of the company. “Speculations disparaging the contribution of the said directors are baseless and arise out of inadequate understanding of the (media and entertainment) industry,” said the Board, adding, “Decisions taken by committee members and the Board of Directors of the company are being wrongly attributed to individual directors without any basis.”