Pegasus spyware: TDP-led Andhra Pradesh government shared data with private agencies, says panel

VIJAYAWADA: The House Committee probing the alleged purchase of the controversial Pegasus spyware and stealing the data of individuals during the previous TDP regime, met under the chairmanship of Bhumana Karunakar Reddy on Tuesday. The committee felt that the previous government had shared the data of individuals with some private agencies between 2016 and 2019.

The House Committee members K Abbaiah Chowdary and M Jaganmohan Rao and officials from the Home and Information Technology departments attended the meeting held in the Assembly hall. 

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Bhumana said they almost came to a conclusion that the previous government intentionally resorted to sharing the data of individuals available with it with private agencies for political gains. "All the details will be disclosed after the final meeting of the committee on Wednesday," Bhumana said.

Recalling that the Telangana State government constituted a Special Investigation Team on stealing the data belonging to people of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, he said the then government collected the data from people in the name of welfare schemes and deleted the names of those who were found to be against it from the electoral rolls.

Though the issue of deletion of names from the voters' list was raised by some public representatives, the then government ignored it, he said. Making it clear that the committee will only inquire the data leak and submit its report to the Assembly, Bhumana said it is up to the government to take a call on initiating action on the matter.