Pegasus Snooping Row: Anil Ambani, CBI ex-director Alok Verma new in the list of potential targets
Verma’s phone number appeared on the list in October 2018, when CBI was mired in an ugly turf war among officials, and Verma, the Director of the agency, had registered an FIR against his deputy Rakesh Asthana, The Wire said.
New Delhi: The Wire reported on Thursday that phones used by industrialist Anil Ambani, former CBI Director Alok Verma, and two other senior officers at the agency were potential targets of surveillance using the Pegasus spyware.
The other two officers included were former special director Rakesh Asthana and former additional director A K Sharma.
Pegasus spyware also included numbers of Anil Ambani’s employee Tony Jesudan, and the French company Dassault Aviation’s India representative Venkata Rao Posina, The Wire said.
According to the report, the numbers of Ambani and his employee entered the list in 2018, when a legal challenge reached the Supreme Court about the Indian government’s deal with Dassault to purchase the Rafale jets.
“…The number for Dassault Aviation’s representative in India, Venkata Rao Posina, former Saab India head Inderjit Sial and Boeing India boss Pratyush Kumar all appear in the leaked database at different periods of time in 2018 and 2019…,” The Wire said.