New Delhi : Pegasus malware targets include leaders from the ruling party as well as those from the opposition. On list of hacked numbers are : Rahul Gandhi, Election Strategist Prashant Kishore, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, Union Ministers Aswini Vaishnav, Prahlad Patel, VHP leader Praveen Thogadiya, private secretary of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje Scindia, Union OSD to Minister Smriti Irani, member of central Election Commission Ashok Lavas, India Head of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Hari Menon, Virologist Gagan Deep Kang, Supreme Court employee who accused former Chief Justice Ranjan, Gogoi of sexual advances and her relatives. Incidentally, wired political leaders have a common history of opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
Two phones belonging to Rahul Gandhi were tapped from mid-2018 into mid of 2019. Also hacked via the malware were Rahul’s two confidantes Sachin Rao and Alankar Savai along with 5 of his friends including two women, all of who are unrelated to politics. In a modus operandi identical to Watergate Scandal that led to US President Richard Nixon’s resignation, Rahul Gandhi too was targeted for phone-tap while spearheading Congress to elections of 2019 as the party president.
In the US episode, President Nixon was forced to resign after his planting of wiretap at Democratic Party office prior to 1972 presidential elections become known. Since the phones Rahul used in the said period is out of use presently, the devices were not subject to forensic examination. A forensic test conducted by Amnesty International on phone belonging to Modi’s former advisor Prashant Kishore who later helped Trinamool come to power in Bengal, showed he too was tapped.
Rahul Gandhi’s phones were invaded by Pegasus for 14 days in June and for 12 days of July in 2019. Also scooped were Kishore’s phone activity last Thursday- the day he met with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka in Delhi. Interestingly, Pegasus worked its attacks unabated even as the devices were being put to forensic testing.
