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Updated July 19th, 2021 at 09:06 IST

Centre responds to the ‘Pegasus Project’ report, terms it as a ‘fishing expedition’

Rubbishing the report that the Union govt allegedly spied on over 300 citizens, including 40 journalists via Israeli spyware Pegasus, Centre issued a rebuttal

Pegasus Project
IMAGE: Shutterstock/PTI | Image:self
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Rubbishing the report that the Indian government allegedly spied on over 300 citizens, including 40 journalists via Israeli spyware Pegasus, Centre on Sunday night issued a rebuttal. Highlighting the Personal Data Protection Bill (2019) currently in the works, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asserted that India was committed to free speech. Stating that the questionnaire sent to Centre was 'founded on pre-conceived notions', MeitY pointed out that Centre's RTI response to the use of Pegasus was itself sufficient.

Govt rubbishes using Pegasus to spy on citizens

The Centre reminded that similar allegations were made regarding the use of Pegasus on Whatsapp and highlighted that those reports were categorically denied by all parties including Whatsapp in the Supreme Court.

Calling the report a fishing expedition, the Centre said that there is a well-established procedure for lawful interception of electronic communications in India for national security reasons by agencies in the Centre or states.

The Centre explained that interception, monitoring and decryption is approved by the Union Home Secretary as per IT rules 2009 which ensures that any such procedure is done as per the law.

Report claims Indian govt spied on citizens

A report by sixteen media houses claimed that 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers were allegedly spied upon using Israeli surveillance technology firm Pegasus - which only has 36 vetted governments as its clients. As per the leaked database of Pegasus, numbers of those allegedly spied upon include over 40 journalists, three major opposition figures, one constitutional authority, two serving cabinet ministers, current and former heads and officials of security organisations and businessmen. The target also includes the eight activists currently accused of the Bhima Koregaon case. The report claims that the leaked numbers mainly belong to ten countries - India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

A similar hack had been revealed in 2019 when WhatsApp revealed that Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware Pegasus. WhatsApp said it was suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, that is reportedly behind the technology that helped unnamed entities' spies hack into phones of roughly 1,400 users spanning across four continents and included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists, and senior government officials. While Whatsapp has not revealed on whose behest this hacking has happened, Centre had sought Whatsapp to explain the kind of breach and what it is doing to safeguard the privacy of Indians. Later in the Supreme Court, WhatsApp Monday denied the allegations that its data can be hacked.

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Published July 19th, 2021 at 09:06 IST

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