No transaction with Pegasus maker: Defence Ministry tells Parliament amid snooping row

New Delhi: In the midst of the Pegasus snooping controversy, the Defence Ministry categorically said on Monday that it did not have any transaction with the NSO Group, which sells the Israeli spyware.

NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance software company, has been under increasing attack following allegations that its Pegasus software was used for surveillance of phones of people in several countries, including India.

"Ministry of Defence has not had any transaction with NSO Group Technologies," Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha.

He was asked whether the government had carried out any transaction with the NSO Group Technologies. The opposition parties have been targeting the central government over the snooping row and disrupting proceedings in Parliament since it met on July 19 for the Monsoon session.

IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnawhad had dismissed media reports on the use of Pegasus software to snoop on Indians, saying the allegations levelled just ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament were aimed at maligning Indian democracy.

In a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha, Vaishnaw had said that with several checks and balances being in place, "any sort of illegal surveillance" by unauthorised persons is not possible in India.

The controversy erupted after an investigation by a global media consortium based on leaked targeting data claimed evidence that the military-grade malware from the NSO Group was being used to spy on politicians, journalists, human rights activists and others. 

Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, two union ministers - Prahlad Singh Patel and Railways and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, businessman Anil Ambani, a former CBI chief, and at least 40 journalists were on the list on the leaked database of NSO. 

It is, however, not established that all the phones were hacked. However, the Narendra Modi govt and the Israeli NSO Group have categorically rejected all allegations of snooping and said that the report was ''baseless and unfounded.'' 

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has recently launched an investigation against the NSO Group to assess the truth behind the snooping allegations