Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday trained his guns at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre over the US court ruling holding Israel’s NSO Group accountable for its spyware Pegasus and said that the case verdict proves 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted in the illegal spyware racket.
He also fired questioned as the government and asked who were the 300 people whose phones were targeted including the two Union governments.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Surjewala, who is also a Rajya Sabha member and party’s general secretary said, “The Pegasus Spyware case verdict proves how 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted in the illegal spyware racket.”
Taking a jibe at the Modi government, Surjewala also attached a news report and asked, “Time for Modi government to answer : Who are the 300 names targeted ! Who are the two Union Ministers? Who are the three Opposition leaders? Who is the Constitutional Authority? Who are the Journalists? Who are the business persons?”
He also questioned, what information was retrieved by the BJP government and agencies?
“How was it used – misused and to what consequence? Will appropriate criminal cases be now lodged against political executive/officers in the present Govt and company owning NSO?” Surjewala asked.
Firing more salvos tovthe government, the Congress leader said, “Will Supreme Court take note of the judgement of US Court in Meta V/S NSO? Will the Supreme Court proceed to make public the report of Committee of Technical Experts on Pegasus Spyware, submitted to it in 2021-22? Will the Supreme Court now conduct further inquiry in view of the judgement affirming targeting of 1,400 what’sapp numbers, including 300 from India? Will the Supreme Court now ask Meta to submit to itself the 300 names to meet the ends of justice in Pegasus case?”
He also asked shouldn’t Facebook (now Meta) now have responsibility to release the names of 300 Indians targeted by Pegasus, considering what’sapp and facebook have the biggest subscriber base in India and they have ‘duty of care & disclosure’ to its clients in India?
He said, the nation wants to know.
His remarks came following a US judge ruling against Israel’s NSO Group, holding it liable for hacking WhatsApp and breaching its contract.
According to the ruling, issued by US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, which marks a major victory for WhatsApp.
The case, initially filed by WhatsApp in 2019, centred on NSO’s use of its Pegasus spyware to exploit a vulnerability in WhatsApp’s system. This breach allowed the unauthorized installation of Pegasus on approximately 1,400 devices belonging to journalists, human rights activists, and others.
WhatsApp had accused NSO of accessing its servers without permission to deploy this military-grade spyware.
Judge Hamilton’s judgment found “NSO guilty of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act”.
The court also noted that NSO exceeded its “authorisation” by sending malicious messages through WhatsApp’s servers to compromise user devices.
In India, the Pegasus Spyware.issue had led to severe political row when several politicians accusing the government.
Several Congress leaders had accused the government of missing Pegasus.
On August 25, 2022, Rahul Gandhi has said that Pegasus snooping is a treason.
After a meeting of 14 opposition parties on July 28, 2021, Rahul Gandhi addressed reporters at Vijay Chowk and said, “India’s entire opposition is standing here today. Leaders of all parties are here. Why did we have to come here? Because our voice is being suppressed …
