Congress general secretary Venugopal gets spyware alert, blames govt

New Delhi, July 13

Congress MP and party general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal on Saturday slammed the Modi government after he was reportedly alerted about a “malicious spyware” on his iPhone.

“Thank you PM Modi ji, for sending your favourite malicious spyware on my phone also,” Venugopal said in a post on X. “Apple has been kind enough to intimate me about this special present of yours,” he said. Earlier this week, Iltija Mufti, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti, also made a similar allegation. Venugopal wrote, “The Modi government is acting in a criminal and unconstitutional manner, going after political opponents and invading their privacy… We will oppose this blatantly unconstitutional act and breach of our privacy tooth and nail.”

Apple had sent a similar alert to Venugopal last year also. A screenshot of the alert the Congress leader shared on the social media platform read, “This is not a repeat notice — this is to inform you that we detected another attack against your device.”

“This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously,” it read.

In November last year too, several Opposition MPs, including Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra and Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, had flagged a notification by the US-based company of attempts by “state-sponsored attackers” to hack their phones, triggering a political storm reminiscent of the Pegasus row.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, who held the Electronics and Information Technology portfolio back then too, had said they would investigate the claims and asked Apple to provide information about the “state-sponsored attackers”. It is not yet clear what happened to the investigation promised by Vaishnaw.