West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that her government had received an offer to purchase the NSO Group’s Pegasus software a few years ago, but she had became down the offer.
The West Bengal chief minister said, “They came to our police department to sell their software (Pegasus spyware). They demanded 25 crores for it, 5 years back. It came to me, and I stated no, we don’t desire to buy such softwares.”
Mamata Banerjee’s disclosure comes even as the Supreme Court is looking at a batch of pleas alleging that Israeli adware Pegasus used to be used for surveillance of sure humans in India.
Mamata Banerjee said, “If it was for anti-national things to do and for security, it could have been a one-of-a-kind thing. But it is being used for political reasons. Its being used on officers and judges, which is now not acceptable.”
Last year, an worldwide media consortium had mentioned that over 300 proven Indian cellular cellphone numbers have been on the list of potential aims for surveillance the usage of Pegasus spyware.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, political strategist Prashant Kishor and two Union ministers (Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Patel) have been among those whose telephone numbers figured in the leaked list.
In July 2021, the central government disregarded the allegations of snooping, with the IT ministry saying there had been no “unauthorised surveillance”.
Meanwhile, Pegasus-maker NSO Group, an Israeli firm, had also maintained that its spyware was for use strictly via the authorities companies in combating terrorism and organised crime.
