NEW DELHI: Congress leaders Manish Tewari and Manickam Tagore on Monday gave adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha to discuss the ‘Pegasus Project’ issue.
Tewari in his notice said, “It should be noted that this kind of surveillance classifies as hacking, which is what a spyware does and it would very much qualify as ‘unauthorised interception’ or hacking as per Information Technology Act, 2000.” Tewari, further said that since the government has “not categorically denied” the official use of the spyware, he wishes to raise the issue in the house. Meanwhile yesterday, Communist Marxist Party of India (Marxist) leader and Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas said snooping on activists, politicians, journalists, and Constitutional functionaries by the Israeli spyware Pegasus is a violation of fundamental rights while alleging that the government has not cared to investigate the issue.
Brittas has approached the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into reports of the government using Israeli software Pegasus to spy on politicians, activists, and journalists. The Opposition has alleged that names of several Indian politicians, journalists, lawyers, and activists have appeared on the leaked list of potential targets for surveillance by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware.
This comes following reports published in The Wire.
