New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s charge that the Instagram handles of her children have been hacked will be investigated by the government’s advanced anti-cybercrime unit, as per sources.
Though the 39-year-old politician has not filed a formal complaint yet, the BJP ruled central government has decided to investigate the allegation on its own.
Notably, the matter will be looked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-In, which comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The government agency will be tasked to see if the Instagram accounts of Priyanka Gandhi’s children were hacked. The CERT-In runs an advanced lab that can trace hackers and prevent cyberattacks.
Asked to comment on pre-election raids on political opponents and allegations of illegal phone surveillance, Priyanka Gandhi in an apparent attack on Yogi government on Tuesday alleged the UP government has been preying on her children on social media.
“They are even hacking my children’s Instagram accounts, let alone phone tapping. Do they not have any other work?” she said in response to a question.
They’re even hacking my children’s Instagram accounts, let alone phone tapping. Do they not have any other work?: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in Lucknow, when asked about incidents of phone tapping & ED-IT raids pic.twitter.com/U2CyZjYPWs
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) December 21, 2021
Priyanka Gandhi and other opposition leaders have also been demanding a thorough investigation into allegations of phone tapping using the spyware Pegasus made by Israeli firm NSO.
A political controversy has been brewing for long since November 2019, when the Congress claimed that the phones of three opposition leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi, were hacked by the BJP government. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also made a similar claim.
As of now, the Pegasus spyware case is in the Supreme Court, which formed an inquiry headed by a retired judge in October this year to look into allegations that the Israeli-made spyware was used to snoop on journalists, activists and politicians.
