Pegasus probe: SC committee asks citizens spied upon by Pegasus to contact them by Jan 7

In a bid to crack down on illegal spying the Technical Committee appointed by the Supreme Court on Sunday, issued a public notice urging citizens to contact them if they feel their mobile devices were infected by Pegasus malware. The notice, issued in a leading daily, has urged citizens to also divulge reasons as to why they believe their device may have been infected with Pegasus. The mails can be sent to the Technical Committee at inquiry@pegasus-india-investigation.in by January 7, 2022.

SC committee seeks citizens' responses on Pegasus

SC order on Pegasus row

In October, the SC bench of of CJI NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli constituted a technical committee comprising of Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary,  Dr. Prabhakaran and Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste to probe into the spying allegations. The committee will be overseen by retired SC judge RV Raveendran and will be assisted by ex-IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Dr. Sundeep Oberoi. The panel has been directed to prepare the report and place it before the SC expeditiously.

As per the order, the committee has been tasked to investigate if Pegasus spyware was used on phones or other devices of Indians, details of victims, steps taken by Centre in 2019 after reports of Whatsapp hacking, inquire if Centre, state govt or any govt agency acquired Pegasus and if any domestic entity/person used the spyware on citizens and whether this use was authorised. The committee has also been told to advise on amendments to existing laws for securing privacy, improving cyber security, establish a mechanism for citizens to raise grievances of illegal snooping and any ad­hoc arrangement by SC to protect citizens' rights. Both Opposition and BJP have hailed the order, terming it a 'victory'.

What is the Pegasus snoopgate?

In July, French non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International accessed a leaked database of 50,000 phone numbers that were allegedly targeted by Pegasus. A report by sixteen media houses claimed that of the 50,000 numbers, 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers were allegedly spied upon using Israeli surveillance technology firm Pegasus - which only has 36 vetted governments as its clients. As per a 'leaked' database, numbers of those allegedly spied upon include over 40 journalists, three major opposition figures, one constitutional authority, two serving cabinet ministers, current and former heads, and officials of security organizations and businessmen. The target also includes the eight activists currently accused of the Bhima Koregaon case. The report claimed that the leaked numbers mainly belong to ten countries - India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.