Puducherry, Jul 21 (IANS): Puducherry Congress President A.V. Subramanian has said that the BJP-led government at the Centre had spied on the mobile phones of ministers, judicial officers, journalists, senior opposition leaders, lawyers, activists and former heads of Indian security forces through Israeli surveillance software 'Pegasus'.

In a statement on Wednesday, the senior Congress leader said that the BJP government had "murdered" the rule of law and has compromised national security. He said that the fundamental right to privacy and constitutional duties were also not at all respected by the central government.

Subramanian alleged that the spyware Pegasus turns on the camera of the phone as well as the microphone to capture all activities near the phone besides hacking all the security features of the phone.

The Congress leader said, "This is treason and total abdication of national security by the government, more so when a foreign company could possibly have access to the data".

He said that the phones of ex-Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his staff were also hacked and he attacked the Union IT minister for misleading Parliament. He said that the minister had admitted that 121 people from India were on the Pegasus list and that the Union government had issued a notice to NSO on November 28, 2019.

Subramanian asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi had directly authorised the purchase and use of the illegal spyware or whether the Union Home Minister did that.