Mamata says Bengal was provided controversial Pegasus adware for Rs 25 crore, 4-5 years in the past

By PTI

KOLKATA/AMARAVATI: A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee revealed that the controversial Pegasus adware was provided to her authorities, she offered on Thursday extra particulars, stating the state police was approached at the very least 4 to 5 years again with a proposal to promote the controversial Israeli adware for simply Rs 25 crore.

The chief minister stated she had turned it down when she got here to know of it.

Banerjee additionally alleged that as an alternative of utilizing the adware for the safety of the nation, it was utilized by the central authorities which she claimed bought it, for “political” causes in opposition to judges and officers.

However, the Telugu Desam occasion denied assertions made by her on Wednesday that the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, had bought the adware throughout his tenure.

“They (NSO, the company which developed Pegasus) had approached everybody to sell their ware. They had approached our police too, four-five years ago and offered to sell it for Rs 25 crore. I had the information, but I said that we did not require it,” Banerjee stated on the state secretariat.

“If it was used for the benefit of the country or for security reasons then it was a different matter altogether, but it has been used for political purposes, against judges, officers which is not at all welcomed,” she alleged.

The Bengal chief minister had on Wednesday disclosed within the Assembly that her authorities was provided Pegasus adware which she had declined because it had the potential to encroach upon folks’s privateness.

During her disclosure within the Assembly, the fiery chief had additionally claimed that the Andhra authorities “had it during Chandrababu (Naidu)’s time”.

However, the Telegu Desam occasion denied the declare and stated the Chandrababu Naidu authorities had made no such buy.

“We have never purchased any spyware. We never indulged in any illegal phone tapping,” Telugu Desam Party normal secretary Nara Lokesh stated right here on Thursday.

Reacting to Banerjee’s declare that the earlier Chandrababu Naidu authorities bought the Pegasus Spyware, Lokesh who was the then Minister for Information Technology in his father Chandrababu’s Cabinet, stated, “I don’t know whether she has indeed said this, and where and in which context. If she did say this, she is certainly misinformed.”

However, he stated the software program was provided to the state authorities. “Yes, Pegasus offered to sell its spyware to the AP government as well but we rejected it,” Lokesh stated. Had the federal government bought the adware, there could be a report of it, he identified.

An worldwide media consortium had reported final 12 months that over 300 verified Indian cell phone numbers had been on the record of potential targets for surveillance utilizing Pegasus adware.

A New York Times report earlier this 12 months claiming India purchased Pegasus adware as a part of a USD 2 billion defence cope with Israel in 2017 had triggered a serious controversy with the Opposition alleging that the federal government had indulged in unlawful snooping that amounted to “treason”.

The Supreme Court is presently listening to a batch of pleas on the allegations of misuse of this adware in India.