The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) that stormed into power in Andhra Pradesh is suspecting that the out-going YSRCP government has used Pegasus to tap the phones of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and general secretary Nara Lokesh.
Chandrababu Naidu has already sought a report from the Director General of Police (DGP) on whether Pegasus was used to tap the phones belonging to him and his son Lokesh by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy regime.
Lokesh is alleging that he and his father were targeted twice and that they received alerts on their mobile phones. “I have been targeted twice, once during my Yuva Galam yatra in March 2023 and once this April during campaigning. We both received the alerts from Apple. We suspect that Pegasus was used by the Jagan government to tap our phones,” he added.
TDP sources have been accusing there were indications that the previous government acquired Pegasus off the books and operated it from a location outside the state. “We want to know from where it was procured and from which location it was operated and who all were targeted,” Lokesh said.
TDP allegations gained significance against the backdrop of the phone tapping case during the KCR-led BRS regime in Telangana, where some officials of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) led by then SIB DIG Prabhakar Rao allegedly tapped the phones and conducted electronic surveillance on Opposition political leaders and activists.
In view of close association between KCR and YS Jaganmohan Reddy and both of them were together in plotting against Chandrababu Naidu’s political moves, now suspicions are being raised that AP government might have acquired Pegasus on the advice of KCR.
As the SIB officers of Telangana, who were in judicial custody presently have admitted in their confession statement that they have destroyed evidence after the BRS debacle in the police, TDP is also suspecting that YCP followed the same pattern in AP also. After realizing they are losing polls, the Jagan government felt that evidence in some offices was destroyed.
