The head of Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce group Flipkart has resigned after allegations of "serious personal misconduct", which while unproven have been enough to impact the co-founder's leadership. 

Yesterday Walmart and Flipkart issued a joint statement on the matter stating Binny Bansal had announced his resignation as CEO, effective immediately.

"Binny has been an important part of Flipkart since co-founding the company, but recent events risked becoming a distraction and Binny has made a decision to step down," the companies said.

"His decision follows an independent investigation done on behalf of the Flipkart and Walmart into an allegation of serious personal misconduct.

"He strongly denies the allegation. Nevertheless, we had a responsibility to ensure the investigation was deliberate and thorough."

Flipkart and Walmart said that while the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions against Binny, it did reveal "other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation".

The companies said Bansal had been contemplating a transition for some time and they had been working together on a succession plan which had now been accelerated.

"Going forward, Kalyan Krishnamurthy will continue to be CEO of Flipkart, which will now include Myntra and Jabong, continuing to operate as separate platforms within the Flipkart business," they said.

Ananth Narayanan will continue to be the CEO of Myntra and Jabong and will report to Krishnamurthy.

Sameer Nigam will continue leading PhonePe as CEO.

"As we look ahead, we have full confidence in the strength and depth of leadership across the company. We remain committed to investing for the long-term and are supportive of the leadership team’s desire to evolve into a publicly-traded company in the future," the companies said.