The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee’s Bhubaneswar wing on Monday organised a demonstration on the issue of the Centre’s alleged use of Pegasus spyware to hack phones of politicians, ministers, journalists, industrialists and other eminent personalities.

Party activists burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah at Master Canteen Square near the Congress Bhavan. “We demand a judicial probe into this. This kind of hacking of phones using the Pegasus spyware could not have happened without the knowledge of the Prime Minister and home minister. The home minister should immediately resign,” said senior Congress leader Biswajit Das.

Odisha Pradesh Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said: “We are opposing the heinous move of the Centre tooth and nail.”

The Centre has made an attempt to hack the phones of members of the judiciary as well as politicians. The country’s integrity is under question at the moment. It’s an anti-national act. Everything including country security and its sensitive internal affairs has been exposed. A judicial probe should be initiated into the issue.”