Raipur: As the Pegasus snooping scandal snowballed into a political potboiler across the country, the Chhattisgarh government has ordered a probe into the snooping row and alleged that some officials of the Israel-based NSO group had visited the state and contacted a few people.
Stating that the government has created a committee to further investigate the matter, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also accused former CM and BJP leader Dr Raman Singh to be involved in the matter. He asked Singh to explain who he met and what deals were signed with the spyware company. The Congress has also decided to march to Raj Bhavan on Thursday and submit a memorandum to the President regarding the matter.
"It is certain that the people of Pegasus had come to Chhattisgarh. But the information about who they met, what happened and what was the deal has not been found yet. Dr Raman Singh should tell about these things as the nation has the right to know answers," Baghel added.
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Meanwhile, reacting to allegations, Dr Singh hit back at the Congress party asking that where were the Congress party for the last four years? Have they woken up now? he asked. Didn't they realize in 4 years whether something happened or not? It is the Congress party's job to make statements reading newspapers. After a call from Sonia Gandhi, they come and say that phones were tapped and records were burnt. These are false & baseless allegations. Their work is to follow whatever gets published in New Delhi as well as instructions of Sonia Gandhi," he retaliated.
However, on the issue, Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) President Mohan Markam also levelled serious allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of using Pegasus spyware for snooping on politicians, journalists and bureaucrats in the country. He also alleged that Dr Raman Singh's government had used Pegasus spyware to snoop the telephones of the then CPCC President Bhupesh Baghel and other senior Congress leaders in 2017.
Meanwhile, Former Chhattisgarh cabinet minister Brijmohan Agarwal called the Pegasus case a conspiracy and said that if Congress has proof, then they should provide it.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Pegasus spyware snooping row erupted on Sunday, a day ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session after it emerged that around 50,000 phone numbers, including around 300 belonging to Indians, were part of a database leak and linked to Israeli company NSO Group. These phone numbers were either put under surveillance or were potential targets of snooping.
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