Congress should not preach to us about spying: BJP after SC observation on Pegasus row

New Delhi [India], August 25 (ANI): After the Supreme Court's observation on the Pegasus spyware row, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that Congress should not "preach" to the BJP about spying.
"Congress party should not preach to us about spying. When late Pranab Mukherjee was Finance Minister, Congress had bugged his office," Prasad said at a press meet after the Supreme Court's observation on Pegasus spyware.
He further added, "As per a reply to an RTI in 2013, around 9,000 phones and 500 email accounts were watched every month by the UPA government," he added.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had stated that only five of the 29 mobile phones examined by the technical committee were found to be affected by some malware, but was not sure if it was Pegasus.
The reports were submitted in three parts, two were of the technical committee and one report of the overseeing committee by a retired judge of the Supreme Court Justice RV Raveendran, said the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the technical committee said that the reports submitted, contained information about malware, information on public research material, and material extracted from private mobile instruments which are confidential and are not for public distribution.
Technical Committee concluded that these five phones were infected with malware because of their poor cyber security.
Several pleas were filed before the top court on snooping row by senior journalists N Ram, and Sashi Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas of Communist Marxist Party of India (Marxist) and advocate ML Sharma, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, and RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya.
Journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shatakshi, who are reported to be on the potential list of snoop targets of Pegasus spyware, had also approached the top court along with the Editors Guild of India (EGI) among others.
Prasad further heavily slammed Congress over the issue of Pegasus and alleged it was a "Leftist party" in the matter who have created a huge ruckus against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Pegasus matter.
He asked if Rahul Gandhi would apologise for his allegations over the matter of Pegasus. (ANI)