New Delhi: The WhatsApp snoopgate controversy took a new turn on Sunday with the Congress claiming that the phones of three opposition leaders including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi were hacked.
“Priyanka Gandhi also received a similar message from WhatsApp around the same time. WhatsApp sent messages to different people whose phones were hacked. One such message was also received from WhatsApp on the mobile phone of Priyanka Gandhi,” said the party’s communications chief Randeep Singh Surjewala while addressing a press conference on Sunday.
Similar messages have also been received by journalists, activists and some politicians.
Charging the government of being involved in the breach Mr Surjewala said, “It is, thus, clear that the government of India and its agencies bought the spyware. It could neither be bought nor deployed by any private operator.”
Insiders claim that the Congress is mulling legal action on the hacking of the mobile phone of Ms Priyanka Gandhi.
Last week, Facebook, the parent company of WhatsApp, alleged that Israeli cybersecurity company NSO used WhatsApp servers to spread spyware Pegasus.
Among the 1,400 users targeted across 20 nations were Indian journalists, activists, lawyers and senior government officials, who were spied on for a two-week period in April before the national elections. Interestingly WhatsApp said it was suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, that is reportedly behind the technology that helped unnamed entities’ spies to hack into phones.
Dubbing BJP the “Bharatiya Jasoos Party”, Mr Surjewala said, the government was silent on the issue “despite knowing about it”.
