IT services firm Coforge Ltd has appointed former Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Akhil Kumar Gupta as its chairperson and non-executive independent director for five years, effective Tuesday. The appointment follows weeks of intense boardroom turmoil, triggered by the abrupt resignation of former chairman and veteran banker O P Bhatt on September 9 after an internal audit revealed that he had withheld a board evaluation report that assigned his own performance category the lowest rating.