Pegasus controversy: Manish Tewari gave notice of adjournment motion in Lok Sabha

Congress leader Manish Tewari on Tuesday gave notice to move a motion for adjournment of business in the Lok Sabha to discuss the Pegasus espionage issue. In his notice, the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Punjab said, I give notice of my intention to seek permission to move a motion for adjournment of the business of the House for the purpose of discussing a certain matter of urgent importance. Reports state that the Indian government has procured Pegasus, a surveillance tool developed by the Israeli company NSO Group to monitor journalists, civil society activists, politicians and Supreme Court judges
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He said that reputed agencies like Citizen Lab have found traces of spyware on some of the attack devices.

That said, it should be noted that such surveillance is classified as hacking, which is what a spyware does. This would very much qualify as unauthorized interception or hacking as per the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The fact, he said, is that the government has not explicitly denied that Pegasus has been used officially. Sir, this is a matter of serious concern and therefore I would like to raise it.

The issue gave a stormy start to the monsoon season, when a global collaborative investigation project revealed that Pegasus spyware from Israeli company NSO Groups was targeted at more than 300 mobile phone numbers in India.