Union minister Gen VK Singh on Saturday called The New York Times "Supari Media" over its report which claimed that the Indian government bought the Pegasus spy tool in 2017 as part of a deal with Israel.
The Israeli spyware Pegasus and a missile system were the "centrepieces" of a roughly $ 2 billion deal of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear between India and Israel in 2017, according to the report in The New York Times.
Reacting to NYT's report, Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation, said on Twitter: "Can you trust NYT?? They are known "Supari Media"."
Singh is also a former Indian Army chief.
SC committee monitoring Pegasus matter: Govt source
A government source on Saturday said that the matter related to Pegasus software is being monitored by a committee under the Supreme Court and its report is awaited.
The source said that the inquiry committee - set up under the supervision of retired Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran - has also published a newspaper advertisement on 2 January calling for submission of phones by people who claim their devices were infected by Pegasus.
"Matter (is) already with the Supreme Court. The court has constituted a committee under the supervision of retired judge Raveendran. The committee's report (is) awaited," the source said.
Oppn accuses govt of snooping, calls it 'treason'
Opposition party Congress launched an all-out attack on the government following the New York Times report, accusing it of deceiving Parliament, duping the Supreme Court, hijacking democracy and indulging in "treason".
The Congress said it intends to raise the issue in the budget session starting next week and will demand accountability from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government on the floor of Parliament.
The principal Opposition party also urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter and initiate appropriate penal proceedings against the government for attempting to deliberately and knowingly "deceive" it.
The shadow of the Pegasus issue looms large again over the 2022 budget session as the entire Monsoon session of 2021 was washed out after the Opposition had jointly stalled the proceedings over the issue.
A massive controversy erupted last year when the NSO Group hit the headlines with the alleged use of its Pegasus software by some governments to spy on journalists, human rights defenders, politicians and others in a number of countries, including India, triggered concerns over issues relating to privacy.
With inputs from PTI
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