New Delhi: Indian ministers, opposition leaders and journalists phone numbers have been found on a database have been hacked by using Israeli spyware Pegasus only available to Governments. This news was reported by The Wire and other publications on Sunday.

           According to the reports members of the legal community, businessmen, Government officials, scientists, activists and others are also on the list of over 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers.

40 journalists, three major opposition leaders, one constitutional authority, two serving Ministers in the Narendra Modi Government, current and former Chiefs and officials of security organisations and businesspersons, reported The Wire, adding it will publish the names in the coming days.

Among the numbers is one that was registered in the name of a sitting Supreme Court Judge and adding it was yet to verify if the judge was still using the number, said the report.

The report into the spying scandal is based on a leaked database accessed by Paris-based media non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International that was shared with a host of publications around the world for a collaborative investigation.

Most of the numbers identified in the list were geographically concentrated in 10 country clusters: India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, The Wire reported.

NSO Group, the Israeli company, which sells Pegasus, denied the allegations, claimed that it only offers its spyware to vetted Governments and said it was considering a defamation lawsuit.

The Indian Government has denied involvement in the hacking and said the allegations regarding Government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever.

The Wire in its report said that an old response to a RTI query, it said there has been no unauthorised interception by Government agencies but did not explicitly deny purchasing or using the Pegasus spyware.

Forensic tests conducted on some phones associated with the target numbers revealed clear signs of targeting by Pegasus spyware, a job made easier if the device was an Apple iPhone, said The Wire.