Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, Prahlad Singh Patel, and virologist Gagandeep Kang were among the names revealed on Monday as potential targets of surveillance using the Pegasus hacking software, The Wire reported.
The revelation came after a leaked list, featuring more than 50,000 phone numbers “concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens”, was accessed by Paris-based media nonprofit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, which shared it with 17 news organisations as part of the Pegasus Project. The Pegasus spyware can access all data on a target’s device.
The list also contained numbers of poll strategist Prashant Kishor, former Election Commissioner of India Ashok Lavasa, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and an ex-Supreme Court staffer who accused former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment.
At least two mobile phone numbers used by Gandhi were selected as a…