Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin [ Images ], who engineered the acquisition of Hutch-Essar in India [ Images ], has accused unsuccessful rival bidders of trying to derail the deal and sought transparency from Indian regulators in M&A approvals.

"One day I would hear that some big business house called some minister attempting to crater the deal. The billionaire losers' club was trying to unwind the deal," Sarin, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, told a Global IIT conference over the weekend in Silicon Valley.

"I have to tell you, I quite didn't expect that. I didn't expect the good and great of India to be calling Cabinet secretaries, ministers, to say, 'You have to unwind this deal, because frankly we want a piece of it," he said.

In May, Vodafone completed the acquisition of controlling stake in Hutch-Essar from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom International Ltd for $10.9 billion.

Reliance Communications [ Get Quote ], Maxis and Hinduja group were among those in the race to buy Hutch-Essar, but Vodafone clinched the deal in February. However, the UK-based company had to wait three more months for regulatory approvals to complete the purchase.

While calling for more transparency in India's acquisition and merger process, Sarin said: "It took Vodafore three months to get approvals, certainly fast by the US and UK standards.