The Congress on Tuesday alleged the Israeli spyware Pegasus was used not just to target individuals but also to topple governments and destroy democratic institutions, referring to the defection game in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and the post-retirement benefits enjoyed by a former Chief Justice of India.
The comments came after the news portal
The Wire reported that the phones of senior Karnataka politicians and their personal assistants were selected as potential targets for surveillance in 2018-19 when the Congress-JDS government was pulled down and a BJP ministry installed.
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Only digital forensics can establish if the shortlisted phones were infected with the spyware. But the timing of the selection of the phone numbers, which coincided with the machinations to engineer defections, appears to have prompted the Congress to conclude that hacking indeed took place.