Maharashtra: Will write to PM to hand over 'cyber attack' probe to CBI, says BJP's Mungantiwar

Citing the seriousness of the alleged 'cyber sabotage' which caused the massive power outage in Mumbai last year, BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar on Wednesday said that he will be writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendera Modi, urging him to handover the probe into the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"I will write a letter to the Prime Minister to hand over the 'cyber attack' investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)," Mungantiwar said during his speech in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha.

"The case seems to be serious," he added.

This came after the Maharashtra Home Minister l Deshmukh's claim that the massive power outage in Mumbai on October 12 last year, was an attempt at "cyber sabotage" according to a preliminary report.

A report by a US-based cybersecurity firm claimed that Chinese-state sponsored groups, had targeted power sector in India with malware. This came months after the clash between troops of the two nations in Galwan valley in June 2020.

Maharashtra Cyber Cell has submitted a preliminary report whose findings state that evidence suggests that the grid failure in Mumbai on October 12 last year, that resulted in the city plunging into darkness and disrupting train services, shutting down the stock market and generally hitting economic activities, was likely to be a cyber sabotage. The report has been handed over to Maharashtra energy minister Nitin Raut.

Denying the reports, Union Power Minister R K Singh on Tuesday had said that Mumbai power outage of October 2020 was caused by "human error" and there is no evidence to prove that it was trigged due to a cyber attack by China.

( With inputs from ANI )