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ELECTION 2018
SNOOPING
In wake of the WhatsApp snooping controversy, the Chauhan, academic Anand Teltumbde, Shubhranshu
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA said that there was no Choudhary from Chhattisgarh, People’s Union for
information on any order being given to purchase Democratic Rights member Ashish Gupta from Delhi,
Israeli sypware ‘Pegasus’, adding that the govern- Delhi University assistant professor Saroj Giri, jour-
ment will take strict action against any intermediary nalist Sidhant Sibal and freelance journalist Rajeev
responsible for breach of privacy of citizens. Sharma, reports said.
Activists, lawyers and academics are victims of the
TARGETS WhatsApp hacking. Some of them were working with
According to reports, 10 Indian activists confirmed the most marginalised communities of Adivasis (trib-
receiving messages from the Facebook-owned chat- als) and Dalits. Jagdish Meshram, a lawyer from the
ting app informing them about the alleged spying. Dalit community who worked with Gadling, and one
Human rights activist Bela Bhatia and Nihal Singh of those contacted by WhatsApp, also reported get-
Rathod -a lawyer involved with the Bhima Koregaon ting video calls from anonymous numbers between
case — have confirmed receiving alert by WhatsApp March and April 2019. He was in Mumbai when his
that their phones had been under state-of-the-art phone was hacked. Human rights advocate Bela Bha-
surveillance for a two-week period until May 2019. tia based of Chhattisgarh also received the video calls
The other eight are Shalini Gera of the Jagdalpur suggesting phone and all data hacking.
Legal Aid Group, Dalit rights activist Degree Prasad Reports suggest that about two dozen journalists,
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