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

The then Dy CM G Parameshwara, the then CM Kumaraswamy and Congress's Siddaramaiah, were possible targets for surveillance

A possible link of using Pegasus spyware to topple 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 . The report claimed that the phone numbers of then Deputy Chief Minister Parameshwara and close aides of Chief Minister Kumarasamy and Siddaramaiah were chosen for surveillance ahead of the toppling of the government.

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The Wire, in its report, said, "The records indicate that the phone numbers of some of the key political players in Karnataka appear to have been selected around the time when an intense power struggle was taking place between the BJP and the JD(S)-Congress-led state government in 2019 after 17 ruling alliance's legislators abruptly resigned to force a trust vote in the Assembly."

Parameshwara was also selected as a potential candidate for surveillance during the middle of the political developments in the state. He confirmed that he was using the particular phone number as mentioned in the database during that period but had since stopped using it for many months.

The leaked database showed two phone numbers belonging to Satish, the personal secretary of Kumaraswamy, were selected for potential targeting in mid-2019 at a time the coalition government was trying to win back the rebels.

Satish confirmed to The Wire that he was using the phone number in 2019 but refused to give further comments.

The phone number of Venkatesh, personal secretary of Siddaramaiah, was also added to the database around the same time the coalition was in the doldrums. The Wire reported that Siddaramaiah has not been using a personal phone for many years and relies on his aides for phone conversations and "therefore, the selection of Venkatesh's phone number as a potential target for surveillance in this period assumes immense significance".

The leaked database also had the phone number of Manjunath Muddegowda, a policeman who was deployed as one of the security personnel of Deve Gowda. Muddegowda, whose phone was selected as a potential target in 2019, confirmed his identity but refused to speak on the matter, The Wire said.

In the absence of digital forensics, The Wire said, it is not possible to conclusively establish whether these Karnataka politician-linked phones were infected or subjected to an attempted hack.

"However, the timing surrounding their selections as possible candidates for surveillance is crucial as during the political power game that played out, the Congress and the JD(S) alleged that the BJP, actively backed by the Union government, was attempting to topple their coalition government by poaching their party legislators," it said.