New Delhi, Oct 29: Day after the Supreme Court instructed a probe into allegations of unauthorized surveillance using the Pegasus spyware, Naor Gilon, Israel’s new ambassador to India called it New Delhi's "internal matter". This came as he made these remarks Thursday during his first media interaction after taking charge earlier in the week as his country’s envoy to New Delhi.
Notably, NSO Group Technologies is an Israel-based technology company that has developed Pegasus. Asked whether the embassy or the Israeli government will cooperate with the committee tasked by the Supreme Court to conduct an inquiry,
Gilon said: "NSO is a private company which has developed Pegasus. They need to get an export license from Israel due to the nature of the software, we make it a point not to enable it to export it to non-state actors, don't know what's happening on it here, it's India's internal matter".
Opposition parties including Congress and TMC have accused the government of buying the Israeli software and using it to extract data and information of Opposition leaders, activists and journalists who are critical of the government. Due to this, the Supreme Court formed a three-member committee to oversee a technical committee comprising of three members, including those who are experts in cyber security, digital forensics, networks and hardware, which will probe the Pegasus spyware case.
Also Read: New Quad between India, Israel, UAE, US has no military component: Envoy Gilon
In July, names of several Indian politicians, journalists, lawyers, and activists appeared on the leaked list of potential targets for surveillance by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware. Later, Ambassador Gilon, responding to a question on the new grouping of India, Israel, US and the UAE, said it is focused on cooperation in areas of economy, trade, infrastructure and technology among others, and there is “no military element” to it.