India News | Pegasus Snooping Row: Cong Demands SC-monitored Judicial Enquiry, Holds Protest Marches

New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) The Congress on Thursday held protest marches at many places across the country demanding an Supreme Court-monitored judicial enquiry into the alleged snooping of phones using Israeli Pegasus spyware and the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah over the issue.

The party's state units held protest marches to Raj Bhavans in different states protesting the "blatantly unconstitutional and ruthless phone hacking incidents".

Congress workers organised marches as well as sit-in protests at Jammu, Jaipur, Kolkata, Vijayawada, Patna, Ranchi, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Raipur, Lucknow and Dehradoon, the party said in a statement.

Congress leaders and workers demanded the immediate resignation of Shah, an inquiry into whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a role in the matter and a Supreme Court-monitored judicial inquiry.

"There is tremendous outrage amongst Congress leaders and workers against the report of the tapping of phones of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. People have taken great exception to the cowardly and deceitful act of snooping which includes many journalists on the surveillance list," the party said.

The Congress sought to know from the government whether these hackings were done on the direction of the Modi government and if not why isn't the government ordering an enquiry to find the people or organizations behind the spying of Union Ministers, judiciary as also many opposition leaders.

"The deeply shocking news reports, disclosing illegal and unconstitutional hacking of cell phones of Constitutional functionaries, Union cabinet ministers, present and former heads of India's security forces, senior leaders of the opposition, journalists, lawyers and activists have shaken the faith of the people in the BJP government," the Congress said in the statement.

The Congress also organised press conferences in all ot state units to register their protests and highlight the issue in the media over Wednesday and day before.

Reacting on the reports of alleged snooping, Rahul Gandhi had said, "It is an attack on the democratic foundations of our country. It must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible be identified and punished."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)