Telugu Desam Party national president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday asserted that his government had never purchased the Pegasus spyware during his tenure as Chief Minister.
In a statement, Mr. Naidu said: “By now it must have become very clear that my government turned down the offer made by the Pegasus,” and cited copies of the application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by an individual from Kurnool district and the clarification given by the authorities concerned.
Mr. Naidu said it had become clear yet again that the YSR Congress Party was bent upon showing the TDP in the bad light through a ceaseless misinformation campaign.
Koneru Nagendra Prasad, a resident of Yemmiganur in Kurnool district, filed an RTI petition on July 25, 2021, seeking to know if the government had procured the Pegasus spyware. The authorities concerned, in their reply, said no such software was procured by the State government.
Former Minister Ayyanna Patrudu, took to his Twitter account to slam the YSR Congress Party on the Pegasus row. The TDP leader posted copies filed by the applicant and the reply by the police department on the issue and said Mr. Chandrababu Naidu had immense respect for the system and he would never do anything to compromise the interests of the State and its people.
The party leader K.S. Jawahar also tweeted saying despite the ruling party leaders resorting to a witch-hunt against the TDP, “they did not find anything against us as we did not do anything wrong.”
Party MLC B. Tech Ravi said if TDP had access to the spyware, it would have prevented the murder of Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy.
