According to sources, Pegasus, a malware built by Israeli business NSO group, targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, political strategist Prashant Kishor, and two Union ministers.
At least two of Rahul Gandhi’s cellphone numbers appear on a list of potential targets compiled by an official Indian client of Israeli surveillance technology company NSO Group.
According to reports, five of Rahul Gandhi’s friends and acquaintances’ phone numbers were also added to the list of potential targets. According to reports, none of the five are involved in politics or public affairs.
Responding to the reports, Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV said Rahul Gandhi was the potential Pegasus target in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Prashant Kishor and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee are among those whose phone numbers appear on the list of potential targets. Prashant Kishor and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, were essential in the Trinamool Congress party’s win in the state’s recent assembly elections.
Using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, their close aides’ phones were also allegedly hacked. According to the reports, Amnesty International’s digital forensic examination pointed to this technological security violation.
However, because their phones were not immediately available for forensic inspection, it was not yet known whether their mobile phone accounts were genuinely compromised, according to the same source.
Aside from them, at least two Union ministers’ phone numbers are on the list of probable targets. Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Patel are their names. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of communications, electronics and information technology, and railroads, was recently inducted into the Council of Ministers. Prahlad Patel was recently appointed as a minister of state with the Jal Shakti responsibility.
The personal secretary to senior BJP leader Vasundhara Raje Scindia when she was the Rajasthan chief minister, as well as Sanjay Kachroo, who worked as an OSD for Smriti Irani during her first term as a Union minister in the Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2015, were reportedly on the list of potential targets.
Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s phone number, which he used in 2019, was also on the list of possible targets. According to sources, Pravin Togadia, the leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is also listed in the database.
According to reports, these numbers were on a client of the NSO Group’s list of potential monitoring targets for 2017-2019.
