Pegasus row: Maharashtra Congress demands SC Judges investigate snoopgate; plans protest

The Pegasus row ceases to die down as the Opposition has been raking up the issue to corner the Central Government. Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole has said his party demands a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the allegations of the alleged snooping and spying that the Pegasus Project Report claims. Nana Patole has said his party will hold protests in front of the Governor's house on Thursday to request for President's intervention into the matter.

Opposition parties including the CPI(M), TMC, Congress and Shiv Sena targeted the Centre over the Pegasus report and have also demanded a probe into the snoopgate. The Centre has categorically rejected the allegations and hit back saying the Pegasus report emerged just a day ahead of the Monsoon Parliament session, indicating that the Pegasus row was planted to disrupt the Parliament session.

In connection with the Pegasus row, the Parliamentary Committee led by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor will hold the meeting on July 28 on the subject of 'Citizens data security and privacy'. The meeting will also be attended by officials from the Ministry of Information Technology and Home Ministry.

What is the Pegasus row?

Several international and domestic media houses released a report claiming that 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers were allegedly spied upon using Israeli surveillance software Pegasus - which only has 36 vetted governments as its clients. As per a 'leaked' database of 50,000 phone numbers globally which were allegedly the targets of snooping through Pegasus, numbers of those allegedly spied upon include over 40 journalists, businessmen, politicians and cabinet ministers from India. The target also includes the eight activists currently accused of the Bhima Koregaon case. The report claimed that the leaked numbers mainly belong to ten countries - India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

NSO Group - the Israeli firm that developed and owns the spyware -  has refuted all the allegations of the speculative and inconclusive report. Reportedly, NSO Group has stated that the list which is being circulated claiming to be of 'potential targets' is not associated with NSO in any manner.

"After checking their claims, we firmly deny the false allegations made in their report. Their sources have supplied them with information which has no factual basis, as evident by the lack of supporting documentation for many of their claims. In fact, these allegations are so outrageous and far from reality, that NSO is considering a defamation lawsuit," NSO Group stated.

According to the IT Minister, the purported Pegasus report also says that the presence of a phone number in the data does not reveal whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack. 

"Without subjecting a phone to this technical analysis, it is not possible to conclusively state whether it witnessed an attack attempt or was successfully compromised. Therefore, the report itself clarifies that the presence of a number does not amount to snooping," IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the Parliament.