Maharashtra govt to seek probe into Digvijay snooping claims, says Anil Deshmukh

“The state government will definitely investigate these claims. If during the previous administration, there was snooping done on people then it is a matter of serious concern. We will look into the allegations that have been made,” Deshmukh said.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. (File)

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday said the state government will seek a probe into claims made by senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh that officials of the Maharashtra government were involved in snooping and tapping of phones in the state and that an official from the state had gone to Israel to hold talks with officials of Israeli firm NSO. The NSO creates spyware like Pegasus, known to have been used to target journalists and activists across the globe.

“The state government will definitely investigate these claims. If during the previous administration, there was snooping done on people then it is a matter of serious concern. We will look into the allegations that have been made,” Deshmukh said.

On Wednesday, Singh made a number of claims stating that an attempt had been made by the previous government to frame him as an “urban Naxal”. “Is the @OfficeofUT going to give details in public that who was behind snooping and tapping in Maharashtra. Who were the officers of Maharashtra Govt who went to Israel to talk to NS0 the brain behind malware Pegasus,” Singh had tweeted.

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He also spoke about the framing of people in the Elgaar Parishad case and said they were yet to get justice. “The previous govt nearly framed me as urban naxal in Bhimaakoregaon and ElgarParishad which only proves that it was a managed case and good activist are still behind jail When will they get justice,” Singh tweeted, tagging both Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as well as NCP president Sharad Pawar.

He also said that a High Court judge-led committee needed to be set up to look into these cases. “Police officers called me up that they will help in this case and when I said prosecute me they never called me again. I m ready to tell this to any agency Maharashtra Govt should appoint a retired High Court judge to look into all managed cases,” Singh tweeted.

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