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- Published: July 18, 2021 20:49
New Delhi: Just ahead of the Monsoon Session, the Pegasus spyware issue has surfaced again and has kept the social media buzzing through the day. About 18 months ago, Pegasus spyware created a flutter in political circles after it was reported that it was used for tapping of phones.
News of an alleged report apparently called “Pegasus Report” on purported wire-tapping of politicians, ministers and other high-level officials has been doing the rounds. In 2019, the Israeli made software was supposed to have hacked into phones of about 1400 users across the world.
Many Parliamentarians and journalists have been tweeting about the ‘explosive’ Pegasus report that is likely to be released tonight.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy tweeted that Pegasus could have also been used to tap the phones of ministers in the Narendra Modi government, RSS leaders and SC justices.
Strong rumour that this evening IST, Washington Post & London Guardian are publishing a report exposing the hiring of an Israeli firm Pegasus, for tapping phones of Modi’s Cabinet Ministers, RSS leaders, SC judges, & journalists. If I get this confirmed I will publish the list.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 18, 2021
Derek O’Brien, TMC MP, replied to Swamy’s tweet by claiming that phone tapping also targeted “many members of the opposition”.
A little birdie tells me that Pegasus is going to be explosive.
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) July 17, 2021
Veteran journalist Sheela Bhatt also tweeted that the report “is a really big story” and involved collaboration of media organizations.
When the Pegasus allegations emerged in 2019, then Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had told Parliament that no “unauthorised” use of Pegasus had been made in India by government agencies.