India bought Pegasus Spyware in 2017, claims NYT Report
According to the NYT report, India’s access to Pegasus was sealed in 2017.
Insight Bureau: India bought controversial spyware tool Pegasus in 2017 as part of a larger arms deal with Israel, according to a new report published by The New York Times.
According to the NYT report, India’s access to Pegasus was sealed in 2017. The story claims that “Pegasus and a missile system” were the “centrepieces” of a broader defence package worth USD 2 billion.
The report also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in July 2017 – to become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the country.
Months later, then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a State visit to India & in June 2019, India voted in support of Israel at the UN’s Economic and Social Council to deny observer status to a Palestinian human rights organisation.
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NYT’s report, which examines how Israel reaped diplomatic gains around the world from NSO’s Pegasus spyware, details how the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, too, had bought and tested the spyware for years with plans to use it for domestic surveillance until the agency finally decided last year not to deploy the tools.
It also sheds new light on how the software ended up being sold to Poland, India and Hungary.
Pegasus was used before by Mexico to spy on journalists and business men and also by Saudi Arabia to keep an eye on women’s rights activists and associates of columnists Jamal Khashoggi who was killed by Saudi operatives.
Reportedly the spyware was used by various nations to spy on opponents, business tycoons and journalists as per a global media association reports in 2021.
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