Kolkata: The Israel based cyber-security company NSO has reached out to West Bengal with the offer to sell the Pegasus spyware but the state government rejected it, CM Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday.
Mamata said the company had approached the state police at least four to five years back with an offer to sell the controversial spyware for just Rs 25 crore but she had turned down the offer when she came to know of it. She also alleged that instead of using the spyware for the security of the country, it was used by the central government which she claimed purchased it, for "political" reasons against Judges and officials.
However, the Telugu Desam party refuted assertions made by her on Wednesday that the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu had purchased the spyware during his tenure. "They (NSO, the company which developed Pegasus) had approached everybody to sell their ware. They had approached our police too four-five years ago and offered to sell it for Rs 25 crore. I had the information, but I said that we did not require it," Banerjee said at the state secretariat.
"If it was used for the benefit of the country or for security reasons then it was a different matter altogether, but it has been used for political purposes, against judges, officers which is not at all welcomed," she alleged. The Bengal CM had on Wednesday had disclosed in the Assembly that her government was offered Pegasus spyware which she had declined as it had the potential to encroach upon people's privacy.