India - accusations of bribes

Now Amar Singh claims telecom companies offered him money

the Samajwadi Party on wednesday claimed that he was approached by major telecom companies with "obscene amounts" to maintain silence on the issue of alleged misuse of Telecom spectrum allotment.

"Representatives of major telecom companies had approached me offering an obscene amount of money to maintain silence on the issue of misuse of spectrum allocation," party General Secretary Amar Singh claimed here.

However, he refused to give details regarding who had approached him and how much money was offered.

Singh said he had "apprised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about it last week and also informed Sonia Gandhi".

Sticking to his charge that a scam had occurred during the allocation of spectrum to telecom companies, Singh alleged that many companies violated Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) norms by using more than their allotted share of spectrum.

The SP leader said he has apprised the PM and UPA chairperson of the issue and has full faith in their integrity and understanding.

"If our request for investigating this matter is not heeded, then I will personally take this matter to court", the SP leader said.

Singh said that asthe SP is supporting the UPA government, he did not want his party to be part of this "scam". "We don't want to be party to this scam," he said.