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

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

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

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

What is 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 targets of soping through Pegasus, numbers of those allegedly spied upon include over 40 journalists, businessmen, politicians and cabinet ministers from India. target also includes eight activists currently accused of Bhima Koregaon case. report claimed that leaked numbers mainly belong to ten countries - India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

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

"After checking ir claims, we firmly deny false allegations me in ir report. ir sources have supplied m with information which has factual basis, as evident by lack of supporting documentation for many of ir claims. In fact, se allegations are so outrous and far from reality, that NSO is considering a defamation lawsuit," NSO Group stated.

According to IT Minister, purported Pegasus report also says that presence of a phone number in data does t reveal wher a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack. 

"Without subjecting a phone to this technical analysis, it is t possible to conclusively state wher it witnessed an attack attempt or was successfully compromised. refore,  report itself clarifies that presence of a number does t amount to soping," IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in Parliament.