Singtel

Singtel: Indian police was reported to have raided the offices of Bharti, SingTel's associate Co, along with another Indian telco Vodafone Essar.

This raid appears to be politically motivated, as it involves the alleged sale of 2G spectrum in 2001-2003 to favored telcos at a token sum by the opposition party, at a time when the current National Congress Party ruling government is under fire for having sold 122 spectrum licences in 2007-2008 for a below-market sum, costing the Indian treasury some US$40b in lost revenue.

The Minister in charge in 2008 has defended himself as saying he was just following the previous opposition government's policy in awarding market spectrum. Both Bharti and Vodafone have said that they acted according to govt policy and in complete compliance of the rules. We await further developments on this news.