VIJAYAWADA: The previous TDP government, between 2016 and 2019, resorted to stealing people’s data for political gains, the House Committee, probing the allegations that the TDP had purchased the controversial Pegasus spyware, concluded on Wednesday.
Tirupati MLA and chairman of the panel Bhumana Karunakar Reddy said, “After four sittings and holding detailed discussions with officials, we concluded that the data was stolen by the previous regime with the support of elders in the government.”
The House Committee and IT Department officials met for the second consecutive day at the Assembly Hall. Post the meeting, the panel chair spoke to the media and said, “Under the pretext of conducting a survey through the ‘Seva Mitra’ app, the then government collected data of beneficiaries of welfare schemes.”
Elaborating, Karunakar Reddy said during the collection of data, the previous government also sought to know whether the beneficiaries were in favour of the TDP or the Opposition (YSRC at the time).
“Based on data, they resorted to delete the names of those in favour of YSRC from the voters list,” he said, adding, “Attempts to erase 35-40 lakh YSRC sympathisers from the voters list were made. However, the then Opposition leaders sensed the conspiracy and succeeded in thwarting the attempts.”
MLA Karunakar Reddy said the then government made a mockery of democracy by stealing data only to desist the then Opposition party from coming to power.
He said all the officials the committee interacted with had expressed that without the support of the elders in the government, there was no way for the data to go out. Karunakar Reddy underscored the need for a comprehensive probe into the issue by the police.
Recalling that the Telangana government had set up SIT to probe the theft of data in AP as well as Telangana by the then TDP government, he said the then CM of AP N Chandrababu Naidu blamed the YSRC and Telangana government of stealing TDP sympathisers’ data.
Following this, he appointed an SIT, which did nothing pertaining to the issue, Karunakar Reddy added.
Committee chair seeks police enquiry
Underscoring the need for a comprehensive probe into the issue by the police, Karunakar Reddy said the panel spoke with the then IT secretary and Real-Time Governance Society secretary