Congress MP and party organisation in-charge, KC Venugopal on Saturday, July 13, accused the Narendra Modi-led Union Government of using a “malicious spyware” to try and hack his phone. 

Venugopal shared a screenshot of a message from Apple, which stated that his iPhone associated with his Apple ID was targeted by a mercenary spyware attack.

The alert, which Venugopal posted, mentioned that Apple had previously notified him on October 30, 2023, and that this was not a repeat notice but a new detection of another attack. In his post, Venugopal directly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sarcastically thanking him for the "special present."

“Thank you PM Modi ji for sending your favourite malicious spyware on my phone also! Apple has been kind enough to intimate me about this special present of yours!” Venugopal wrote.

He further said that such acts were unconstitutional and a blatant breach of privacy and vowing to oppose them. "The message of the Lok Sabha elections was that the people reject any attack on the Constitution and the BJP's fascist agenda," Venugopal added. He accused the Modi government of acting in a "criminal and unconstitutional manner" by targeting political opponents and invading their privacy.

"We will oppose this blatantly unconstitutional act and breach of our privacy tooth and nail," Venugopal said.

In April, Apple issued a similar threat alert to iPhone users in 92 countries, including India, warning of a potential “mercenary spyware” attack, possibly similar to Israel’s NSO Group's Pegasus malware. In October 2023, several opposition leaders and senior journalists in India were alerted about a "potential state-sponsored spyware attack" on their iPhones. This included Congress's Shashi Tharoor, AAP's Raghav Chadha, TMC's Mahua Moitra, and journalists Siddharth Varadarajan and Sriram Karri. Following government intervention, Apple clarified that the notifications did not attribute the attack to any specific state-sponsored attacker.