It’s India’s internal matter: Israel envoy on row on use of Pegasus

New Delhi [India] October 28 (ANI): Reacting to the Supreme Court decision to constitute a three-member committee for probe into the alleged use of Israeli spyware Pegasus in India, Israel envoy to India on Thursday called it New Delhi’s internal matter.
Speaking to ANI, Israeli envoy to India Naor Gilon said that “NSO is a private company which has developed Pegasus. They need to get an export license from Israel due to the nature of the software, we make it a point not to enable it to export it to non-state actors, don’t know what’s happening on it here, it’s India’s internal matter”
Opposition parties including Congress and TMC have accused the government of buying the Israeli software and using it to extract data and information of Opposition leaders, activists and journalists who are critical of the government.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday formed a three-member committee to oversee a technical committee comprising of three members, including those who are experts in cyber security, digital forensics, networks and hardware, which will probe the Pegasus spyware case.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked a three-member committee, supervised by retired judge Justice R V Raveendran, to examine the allegations thoroughly and expeditiously and place a report before the court.
The court will hear the matter again after eight weeks. The Technical Committee comprises of Dr Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Dean of National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar; Dr Prabaharan P, Professor at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Kerala; and Dr Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
In July, names of several Indian politicians, journalists, lawyers, and activists appeared on the leaked list of potential targets for surveillance by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware.
NSO Group Technologies is an Israel based technology company that has developed Pegasus. (ANI)