India Opposition Says Modi Used Spyware on Rival Rahul Gandhi
- Government denies all allegations of illegal surveillance
- Hacking claims stretch back to the 2019 national election
Narendra Modi
Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government targeted his political rival Rahul Gandhi for surveillance using Israeli company NSO Group Ltd.’s Pegasus spyware, according to India’s largest opposition party.
Phones belonging to Gandhi and India’s chief election commissioner, Ashok Lavasa, were identified as potential targets using the spyware in the lead up to the 2019 general polls, the Indian National Congress alleged. It cited media investigations into a leaked list of potential targets of NSO, whose spying tool Pegasus allows clients to infiltrate phones and monitor text messages, camera feeds and microphones.