Bommai dubs Pegasus report 'misinformation campaign' to destabilise India

Even as reports said that Pegasus may have been used to topple the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka in 2019, state Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday dubbed it a controversy to malign the nation as "India is growing stronger day by day."

"It is a conspiracy involving foreign press where these kinds of misinformation campaign have been done against India. In past too, many names came up regarding Swiss Bank accounts, now there are cases against its CEO. Using digital platforms, they try to destabilise different countries. Now, the eyes are set on India," he told news agency ANI.

He did not comment on the role it may have played in toppling the Congress-JD(S) government in the state.

Read | Pegasus snooped on Karnataka leaders, their aides just before Congress-JD(S) government toppled in 2019: Report

A possible link of using Pegasus spyware against the JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka two years ago emerged on Tuesday with a leaked database showing that G Parameshwara, close aides of H D Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah, and a policeman attached with former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda were chosen as targets for surveillance just before the coalition lost power.

Their phone numbers are part of a leaked database accessed by the non-profit French media Forbidden Stories and shared with an international media consortium, which includes The Washington Post, The Guardian and The Wire.

The BJP under B S Yediyurappa had managed to return to power after 17 MLAs from the JD(S)-Congress combine abruptly resigned, forcing Kumaraswamy to seek a vote of confidence, which he lost in July 2019.

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(With DHNS inputs)