The top court is scrutinizing a report submitted by a technical committee set up on the alleged use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on phones of politicians, activists, and journalists.
A Supreme Court bench head by CJI NV Ramana, on Thursday, said, 29 phones were examined and malware was found in five phones but there’s no conclusive proof of Pegasus spyware. The CJI added that the committee has said the Indian government is not cooperating.
The top court is scrutinizing a report submitted by a technical committee set up on the alleged use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on phones of politicians, activists, and journalists.
The apex court said the report is submitted in three parts – two reports of the technical committee and one report of the overseeing committee by a retired judge of the SC, Justice RV Raveendran.
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One part of the report will be made public on the Supreme Court’s website, it stated.
“We will be making the third part of the report by Justice Raveendran on recommendations public on our website,” the CJI added, adding that the committee has directed not to publish the full report in the public domain.
Some of the petitioners sought a copy of the first two parts of the report. The CJI said the court will examine the demand.
“We don’t want to make any more comments without going through the complete report,” Justice Ramana said. Referring to his retirement, CJI said in a lighter vein “After tomorrow, I will also express my opinion” when an advocate said he wanted to express his views.
The matter was adjourned for four weeks. This Supreme Court set up the expert committee to investigate whether Indian law enforcement authorities had procured and used Pegasus after a huge political storm was set off by global headlines that the spyware from the Israeli firm NSO Group was used to target many around the world.
News portalĀ “The Wire” claimed that more than 142 people were targeted. Forensic analysis of some of the cellphones by the Security Lab of Amnesty International had confirmed a security breach, reports read.
The alleged list included Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, political strategist Prashant Kishor, two serving Union Ministers, an ex-Election Commissioner, two registrars of the Supreme Court, an old number of a former judge, a close aide of a former Attorney General, and 40 journalists.
The government had givenĀ a statement in the parliament saying no illegal interception has been done but no discussion on the issue took place in either house. Opposition parties have repeatedly demanded a discussion on the issue.
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