Mumbai: The high-level inquiry committee set up by the MVA government to look into the alleged tapping of phones of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP leaders by the Fadnavis government has on its radar a senior IPS officer.
It is believed that this officer was among the group that went to Israel and had purchased the Pegasus spyware, which was allegedly used by the Fadnavis government to snoop on the WhatsApp chats of journalists and politicians.
(Pegasus can read text messages, track calls, collects passwords, trace the location of a phone, access the target device's microphone and video camera(s), and gather information from apps.)
According to sources, the purchase happened during a tour that was at the invitation of the Israeli government, ostensibly arranged to understand effective use of social media for public relations.
The two-member probe committee -- comprising additional chief secretary (Home) Shrikant Singh and Amitesh Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) -- has been asked to give its report in six weeks, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced on Monday.
According to reliable sources in the State home department, even the phones of the former BJP minister and leader Eknath Khadse were tapped by the Fadnavis government. "The committee will also look into Khadse's phone-tapping," the highly placed source said.
"The home department received many complaints from political parties and leaders about phone tapping by the previous government. As per the complaints, the tapping was done during the last Assembly election (held in October 2019)," Deshmukh said.
"This abuse of power violates the right to freedom and privacy as enshrined in the Constitution and is a national security threat," read the NCP minister's tweet. "The committee will investigate the officials' visit to Israel and the misuse of software purchased by the state government," he added.
