At a time when the Pegasus snoop files have raked controversy over the Modi government’s alleged role in spying against Opposition party members, it came to light that in the run-up to the toppling of the opposition-run state government in Karnataka in 2019, the phone numbers of then deputy CM G. Parameshwara, personal secretaries of then CM H.D. Kumaraswamy, and former CM Siddaramaiah, were reportedly selected as possible targets for surveillance.

In its reports, The Wire news agency reviewed the records of contact numbers that were of interest to an “Indian client” of Israel’s NSO Group, the creator of the Pegasus spyware.

It, however, also mentioned that in the absence of digital forensics, it is not possible to conclusively establish that the phones of these Karnataka politicians were infected or subjected to an attempted hack.

The records indicate that the phone numbers of some of the key political players in Karnataka appear to have been selected around the time when an intense power struggle was taking place between the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress-led state government in 2019, after 17 ruling legislators belonging to the ruling alliance abruptly resigned to force a trust vote in the state Assembly.

This period also coincides with the selection of a new number that former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi began to use after discarding an earlier one that had been on the list of potential spyware targets since 2018.

It may be noted that the Congress and the JD(S) had alleged in 2019 that the BJP, actively backed by the Union government, was attempting to topple their coalition government by poaching their party legislators.

In its review of the leaked data, The Wire found that two phone numbers belonging to Satish, the personal secretary of then CM Kumaraswamy, were selected for potential targeting in mid-2019, at a time when the Congress-JD(S) government was struggling to win back the rebels.

When The Wire reached out to him to inform him about his presence on the leaked list, he refused to comment but confirmed that he was using the phone number in 2019.

Sources close to Siddaramaiah said that the former CM hasn’t been using a personal phone for many years, and relies on his aides for phone conversations. Therefore, the selection of Venkatesh’s phone number as a potential target for surveillance in this period assumes immense significance.

NSO sells its Pegasus spyware — whose use involves the crime of hacking into a smartphone under Indian law — only to governments. Neither NSO nor the Narendra Modi government has denied that India is a customer, The Wire reported.

…With IANS inputs