AP assembly to set up House committee to probe if TDP govt got Pegasus spyware in 2019
India Today
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Monday, decided to constitute a House Committee on whether the TDP had acquired Pegasus spyware in 2019. This came after Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee claimed that the TDP had acquired Pegasus spyware in 2019.
The Pegasus spyware row is not dying out in Andhra Pradesh. On Monday, March 21, the State legislative Assembly decided to form a House committee looking into the Pegasus controversy.
The row was triggered after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government in 2019 acquired Pegasus spyware.
The ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) members had urged that a House Committee should be formed to conduct a comprehensive investigation into how the TDP administration led by former CM, Chandrababu Naidu, used spyware to snoop on his political opponents.
Speaker Tammineni Seetharam later announced that the Legislative Assembly had unanimously decided to constitute a House Committee on the Pegasus row to investigate in detail.
Also Read: Not reducing height of Polavaram project: Andhra CM hits out at TDP over false claim
Facing heat, the TDP has denied procurement of spyware. AB Venkateswara Rao, who was intelligence chief during Naidu's tenure, clarified that during his tenure till May 2019, the government never bought Pegasus spyware.
However, he said he did not know what had happened after May 2019.
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