kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the state police had received an offer to purchase the NSO Group's Pegasus software a few years ago, but she had turned down the offer.
"They came to our police department to sell their software (Pegasus spyware). They demanded Rs 25 crores for it, four to five years back I had the information, but I said that we did not require it," Banerjee said at the state Secretariat Nabanna on Thursday at a time when the Supreme Court is looking at a batch of pleas alleging that Israeli spyware Pegasus was used for surveillance of certain people in India.
"If it was used for anti-national activities and for security reasons it could have been a different matter altogether. But it's being used for political reasons against officers , judges, which is not acceptable." Banerjee said.Banerjee on Wednesday had disclosed in the Assembly that her government was offered Pegasus spyware which she had declined as it had the potential to encroach upon people's privacy. Last year, an international media consortium had reported that over 300 verified Indian phone numbers were on the list.