NEW DELHI, INDIA: The sudden exit of Alok Sharma, MD, Apple India, along with six other managers, has set off turmoil in the India operations of the company. The move, which came suddenly last week, is shrouded in mystery, and various sources are attributing different reasons for the exit.

If sources close to the situation are to be believed, several people have been pink-slipped, and that there are at least seven people from Apple India who have made a sudden exit. No one associated with the development was willing to talk about it openly. A source close to the situation said, on condition of anonymity, that several people were asked to leave because of "indications of irregularities, and improper corporate practices."

Senior managers who have moved out include the CFO, the enterprise head, the training head, the western regional manager for retail, and two others from the training division.

"Apparently the company found items on its servers which had no business being in the company in the first place, some of it very objectionable in nature. The issue is unraveling at the moment but Apple has already appointed someone to take charge of the Indian operations in the interim, as it tries to resolve the situation," the source added.

When contacted about his abrupt exit, Sharma said, "I have done the same thing for five years, how long can one keep doing it? Five years is a long time and I decided to move on to do newer things." On his future plans, Sharma said, "At the moment I am taking a sabbatical for two to three weeks, spending some time with family, but you will soon get to know about what I do next."

Alan Hely, Apple Europe's corporate communications director (EMEIA) commenting on the development said, “Yes, Alok Sharma has left the organization and Tom Preising is Apple's new acting Country Sales Manager for India, responsible for the day-to-day operations in the region.”

When questioned about the exit of other people and the reason behind the move, Hely stated that they had nothing further to add and remarked that, “Apple continues to invest in India as a growing market for the company.”

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