Chandrababu Naidu seeks police report on alleged use of Pegasus spyware by YSR Congress government
Telugu Desam Party leader Nara Lokesh accused the outgoing Jagan Mohan Reddy-led administration in Andhra Pradesh of ‘systematic destruction of evidence’.
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The chief minister-elect of Andhra Pradesh 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 Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party government, The Indian Express reported on Saturday.
When installed on an electronic device, the Pegasus software can generally gain access to phone calls, emails, location information, encrypted messages and photographs without the user’s knowledge.
The spyware is made by the Israeli firm NSO and is licensed to governments around the world. The cyber intelligence company says it sells the Pegasus software only to “vetted governments” with good human rights records and that it is intended to target criminals.
“I have been targeted twice, once during my Yuva Galam yatra in March 2023 and once this April during campaigning,” Lokesh told the newspaper. “We both received the alerts from [American technology company] Apple. We suspect that Pegasus was used by the Jagan government to tap our phones.”
Lokesh said that once the Telugu Desam Party government is formed in the state, it will investigate how the spyware was procured, the location from which it was operated and the people who were targeted, reported the newspaper.
He alleged that the former Jagan Mohan...
