Pegasus row: NCP demands probe into 'phone tapping'

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The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has sought a probe into the alleged phone tapping of certain individuals using Israeli software Pegasus and demanded action against those responsible for the act. Party spokesman and Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik said only an inquiry will establish which agency of the central government allegedly hacked the phones of journalists, ministers and industrialists.

More than 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge, besides scores of business persons and activists in India, could have been targeted for hacking through the Israeli spyware sold only to the government agencies, an international media consortium had reported on July 18.

Malik told reporters here that Pegasus has made it clear that it provided the software only to governments and not private individuals. "If the software wasn't sold to private individuals, which agency of the central government hacked the phones of journalists, ministers, social workers, judges and industrialists," he asked.
Malik said the Modi government should explain if the alleged phone tapping was done for surveillance. Action should be taken against those responsible, he added. Earlier in the day, NCP ally Shiv Sena said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should clarify on the issue of alleged snooping of several people, including journalists, through the Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Also Read: Pegasus spyware issue: Modi govt ruining country's democratic values, says Maharashtra minister

This shows the country's "government and administration is weak", Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told reporters in New Delhi. The Centre has, however, categorically rejected allegations of snooping on politicians, journalists and others using Pegasus, asserting illegal surveillance was not possible with checks and balances in the country's laws and alleged that attempts were being made to malign Indian democracy.

As a massive row erupted over the issue, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha on Monday, said the media reports on alleged snooping published a day before the start of the Monsoon Session of Parliament "cannot be a coincidence" and stressed that there is "no substance" behind the sensationalism.

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