Siddaramaiah claims BJP-led Govt behind snoopgate as Pegasus sold to only governments

Pegasus revelations have strengthened the belief that the BJP-led union government has "always" worked against democracy, said senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah slamming Centre on media reports that claimed opposition leaders and journalists are being spied upon using the spyware.

Taking to Twitter, Siddaramaiah claimed that Centre was responsible for 'snoopgate' as Israeli firm NSO sells the infamous spyware only to governments.

"Pegasus revelations have strengthened our belief that Narendra Modi government has always worked against democracy and curtailed freedom of its citizens. It is unfortunate that pillars of democracy - judges, opposition leaders and journalists - are snooped," he tweeted.

"PegasusSpyware by the Israeli firm NSO is sold only to Governments which means Narendra Modi government may be solely responsible for the SnoopGate. Why is Narendra Modi so insecure that he may have found a need to invade privacy?" the Congress leader asked in another Tweet.

The names of over 40 Indian journalists appeared on the leaked list of potential targets for surveillance by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware, according to a report published in The Wire on Sunday.

According to the report, the journalists who were targeted work for some news organisations in the country including Hindustan Times, The Hindu, India Today, Indian Express and Network18. Many of them cover matters related to Defence, Home Ministry, Election Commission and Kashmir among others.

( With inputs from ANI )