Chandrababu Naidu seeks police report on alleged use of Pegasus spyware by YSR Congress government

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister-elect N Chandrababu Naidu has sought a report from the Andhra Pradesh Police on whether Pegasus spyware was used to tap phones belonging to him and his son Nara Lokesh by the outgoing Congress Party government Yuvajana Sramika Rythu, The Indian Express reported Saturday.

When installed on an electronic device, Pegasus software can typically access phone calls, emails, location information, encrypted messages, and photographs without the user's knowledge.

The spyware is made by Israeli company NSO and is licensed to governments around the world. The cyber intelligence company says it sells Pegasus software only to “controlled governments” with good human rights records and that it is intended to target criminals.

“I was targeted twice, once during my Yuva Galam yatra in March 2023 and once last April during election campaigning,” Lokesh told the newspaper. “We both received the alerts from (American technology company) Apple. We suspect that Pegasus was used by Jagan's government to tap our phones.

Lokesh said once the Telugu Desam Party government is formed in the state, it will investigate how the spyware was purchased, the place from which it was used and the people who were targeted , the newspaper reported.

He alleged that the former Jagan Mohan Reddy government had acquired the spyware “unofficially” and operated it from outside the state, reported The Indian Express.

The Telugu Desam Party leader on Friday claimed that there is “clear information that systematic destruction of evidence is being carried out by the former government”, ANI reported.

“Chief Minister-designate Mr. Naidu has ordered the DG (Director General of Police) to stop all this and seize all offices until further orders,” Lokesh told ANI.

THE Telugu Desam Party along with its allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jana Sena Party, won the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections on Tuesday. Naidu should be sworn as chief minister on June 12.

In July 2021, an investigation by a group of 17 media organizations and the human rights group Amnesty International showed that Pegasus spyware was used for unauthorized surveillance of journalists, activists and politicians in all over the world, including India.

In India, the Congress leader Rahul Gandhiformer election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and industrialist Prahlad Singh Patel Anil Ambani and former Central Bureau of Investigation director Alok Verma were among those potential targets, Thread had reported.

The Indian government had denied these allegations. Vaishnawthe Union Information Technology Minister, told Parliament in July 2021 that illegal surveillance was not possible in India.

Following the reports, the Supreme Court appointed a committee of experts to examine the allegations. In August 2022, the court declared that certain malware was found on five of the 29 phones examined by the panel. However, it was unclear whether the malware was Pegasus.

The judges also took note of the committee's finding that the Center had not cooperated with the investigation.