Former CBI chief Verma, Anil Ambani was detained by Pegasus?

More individuals came out in the case of Pegasus spyware

It is suspected that the phone numbers of all those whose names surfaced in the raffle deal have been put on the surveillance list.

Mumbai: Former CBI chief Alok Verma was deported overnight in 2018 after the Center got into trouble over the Rafale case. A website called The Wire claimed that he had been spied on by Pegasus within hours of his dismissal.

A total of eight numbers, including not only Alok Varma's but also his wife, daughter and son-in-law's phone numbers, were placed on the surveillance list. Verma's crime was that he did not deny a request for a criminal investigation into the controversial Rafal deal, the news portal said.

Apart from this, the names of businessman Anil Ambani and some top officials of the aerospace industry were also found in the so-called surveillance list. The raffle deal was the talk of the town during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and there were indications that Anil Ambani had struck a deal with Dassault, the raffle maker.

The surveillance list also included the phone numbers of Dassault Aviation's India representative Venkatrao Poshina, former Saab India chief Inderjit Sial and Boeing India chief Pratyush Kumar, The Wire said in its report. The name of Harmanjit Negi, head of the French energy company EDF, was also mentioned in the leaked database.