The ruling YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh, accused the opposition TDP of using Pegasus spyware and data theft when the party was in power before 2019. It may be mentioned here that the Assembly during the budget session in March this year had appointed a committee headed by Bhumana Karunakar Reddy to probe into allegations of Pegasus spyware use in the state.

Karunakar Reddy presented the interim report of the committee to the Assembly on Tuesday. He said that the initial inquiry of the committee confirmed the use of spyware and data theft by the TDP. He alleged that the TDP had planned to remove the votes of over 30 lakh people, who were suspected to vote against the TDP in the 2019 elections.

Karunakar Reddy said that the committee held several rounds of meetings with the senior officials and collected data from them. The committee also questioned the officials who worked with the TDP team.

He said that the TDP had started the Seva Mitra App in 2018-19 and collected the data of the people from the government departments. The government departments were asked to make calls to the people in the guise of feedback on the government performance. The data collected by various departments was transferred to the Seva Mitra team, who are associated with the TDP, he said.

Karunakar Reddy said that the committee was required to investigate further and question several senior officials of various departments, including the police. He also alleged that the TDP had also used the spyware to tap the phones of the opposition leaders.

The telephones of some of the YSR Congress leaders were also closely watched and monitored by the TDP team those days, it was alleged.

However, when Karunakar Reddy was presenting the interim report, the TDP MLAs protested against the allegations.