Vice-president (programming) Vishnu Patel, Ajit Gupta (commercial) and Rajesh Mishra (legal) were issued the marching orders just three days after the second Zee Cine Awards ceremony concluded here.

The sack order - Zee Network CEO, Vijay Jindal's, March 17 internal circular - said the decision was taken for corporate rejuvenation and instituting purity. ``Just as a human body has to go through numerous phases of healing, curing and even amputation, similarly organisations too have to undergo a continuous churning process retaining the good and expelling the evil,'' the note said. Stating that transparency, integrity and honesty are the founding pillars of the Essel Group, (which owns the Zee TV), the note adds: ``We have taken the decision bearing the pain of amputation as we have asked some of our senior colleagues to leave even though they have played a useful rolein the past.''

While Vishnu Patel used to approve all programmes and shows on the network and was instrumental in organising the Zee Cine Awards, Ajit Gupta and Rajesh Mishra were responsible for buying films and other software for the network.

When contacted today Patel, who was leaving on a holiday to Alibaug, denied the corruption charges. He said he was not given a proper explanation by the company heads.

``The day after the awards I didn't go to the office. But the next day I was told that I being sacked and that there were corruption charges against me. It's disgusting...after working for two and half years one fine morning I'm told that I'm involved in corruption,'' Patel said.

However, senior company officials said they had strong evidence against all five officials. ``There was a whisper campaign and slowly the whisper became louder and louder. Remember, there is never smoke without fire,'' said Ranjan Bakshi, vice-president, corporate communications.

What remains to be seen now is whateffect would the sackings have on the organisation. While Jindal was not available for comment, Bakshi was confident that the fallout would be positive. ``When you purify an impure system you can only do better. Companies are larger than any individual and its a fact that no one is indispensable,'' he said.

The entire television industry today reacted with surprise to the news. Producers who've been working for Zee, though, felt that the changes would not affect their functioning. Ravi Rai, the man behind shows like Sailaab and Teacher, said: ``There won't be any derailment of work. Sailaab has seen seven CEOs change...the show must go on.'' About the corruption charges he said it would be difficult for him to comment for he was just an outsider whose job was to deliver the software.

Parivartan producer Ashok Shekhar said the changes at the top might just give a new look to the channel and some opportunities to new producers.Dinesh Bansal of Ghar Jamai, however, said the sackings were not good forZee TV's reputation.

Two things that everyone now is curious about are who will be the new programming head at Zee and also who will pick up Vishnu Patel? Sources at Zee said it's all been so sudden that the responsibilities will, for the time-being, be shared internally. As far as Vishnu Patel's next career move is concerned, he said he was available. ``By now I must have enough equity to make employers pick me up - Sony or Star let us see,'' he laughed.