News website The Wire on Thursday reported that hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi acted to oust Alok Verma from his post as head of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at midnight on October 23, 2018, an unidentified Indian agency, known to be a user of Pegasus spyware, made a note of three telephone numbers registered in his name.
Also read: Overnight decision, Alok Verma tells SC
Very soon after the decision, Verma’s were added to the list of numbers “of persons of interest”, claimed the report.
Along with Verma, the personal telephone numbers of his wife, daughter and son-in-law were also added to the list, with eight numbers from the family on it, the report said. It added that: “Also added to the list of numbers at the same time as Verma were two other senior CBI officials, Rakesh Asthana and A.K. Sharma...”
“NSO insists the leaked database has nothing to do with the company or with Pegasus. Verma was unwilling to participate in this story, so forensics on the telephones linked to him — the only way of conclusively establishing whether they were targeted or infected with Pegasus — could not be carried out,” The Wire said.
