On Monday, the Defense Ministry announced to Rajya Sabha that it was not doing business with Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group, which is at the center of a global controversy over the misuse of its Pegasus spyware to hack the phones of journalists, activists and politicians.
When asked about the matter in the House of Lords, Defense Secretary Ajay Bhatt said, "The Department of Defense has not done any business with NSO Group Technologies."
The minister replied to a question from V. Sivadasan of the CPIM who asked about the ministry's expenses, including spending on overseas purchases in the past three years. The Ministry's online response to the NSO group's investigation comes at a time when opposition parties are continually disrupting the work of Parliament due to the Pegasus espionage controversy.
On August 6th, the media reported that the centre had attempted to reject a question in Rajya Sabha about whether the government had signed a contract with the NSO group stating that "the ongoing Pegasus problem "pre-trial PILs have been submitted to the Supreme Court."