Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has accused the Modi government of weakening the four pillars of democracy through alleged snooping using Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Talking to reporters in Delhi, Raut expressed surprise that the central government was not even paying heed to the Supreme Court’s observation that the Pegasus case, if true, was a serious matter. On August 5, the apex court had said that allegations of Pegasus-related snooping are "serious in nature" if reports on them are correct. It also asked the petitioners seeking probe into the Israeli spyware matter whether they have made any efforts to file a criminal complaint on this.