Kolkata: The Bengal government on Monday constituted a two-member inquiry commission comprising retired Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur and former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice (retired) Jyotirmay Bhattacharya to probe into the allegations that the Pegasus software was misused to spy on lawyers, journalists, politicians and government officials.
Bengal is the first state in the country to constitute such a commission to probe the "illegal surveillance of phone calls" after the Pegasus spyware controversy surfaced. This comes when repeated requests to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah to come up with a statement in this connection have gone unheard.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the setting up of the commission of Inquiry after the Cabinet gave its approval in a specially convened meeting held at Nabanna on Monday. Banerjee's announcement came before she left for Kolkata Airport for her flight to Delhi. The panel will submit its report to the state government within six months.
The Chief Minister said: "The Cabinet has approved the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry consisting Honorable Justice MB Lokur, Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of India and Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, in exercise of power conferred by Section 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act 1952 in the matter of widely reported hacking, monitoring, putting under surveillance and recording, etc of mobile phones of various people in the state of West Bengal." She urged the Commission to initiate its work at the earliest.
Banerjee further added: "You all have seen how people from judiciary, media, politicians and civil workers here were kept under surveillance using the Pegasus spyware. Parliament is in session and we thought that the Centre would order a probe into the same by constituting a Commission headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge on which people have faith and confidence. But we found that the Centre was indifferent to the issue even when Parliament is in session. So Bengal has taken the step and I am announcing this before leaving for Delhi. Bengal is the first state to constitute a Commission to probe into the Pegasus controversy."
The state Home and Hill Affairs department later issued a notification in this connection, which also contains terms of reference of the commission.
The notification reads: "It is being widely reported that the mobile telephones of various police officials, politicians, members of the Legislative Assembly, journalists, activists, members associated with judicial services and other eminent personalities in the state have been illegally hacked or put under surveillance by the use of highly sophisticated surveillance tools since 2017, having a potential threat of breach of state secrets, jeopardising law and order situation of the state, and breach of privacy of the above class of persons." It further stated that "the reported interception, if found to be true, shall result in grave interference with the privacy of the aforesaid individuals and the public at large...(it) shall cause complete demoralization of the police force and other security services in Bengal...(and) cause a total loss of public confidence on the police force."
She added: "The Commission will inquire to find out that who are involved in it and how the important people were kept under surveillance using the spyware."
The detailed term of reference of the commission, as stated in the notification, is to probe "whether any incidences of reported interception have occurred, the state and non-state actors who were involved in such reported interception, the mechanism or spyware or malware that were being used to effectuate such reported interception and whether any software such as Pegasus of NSO Group Technologies located at Harzliya in Israel or any spyware or malware of any other organisation had been in use or currently being used for interception".
The commission will also investigate "circumstances, including provocations, instigations from any persons or group of persons, if any, leading to the reported interception". It will also investigate the details of the victims or persons affected.
If the reported interception is found to be true, then the panel will also look into the aspect if any "state or non-state" authorities can carry out the same without any "legal provision" or "judicial oversight".
While addressing the Press conference at Nabanna, Banerjee also maintained: "We expect that our little step would come as an eye-opener for others and people will get justice. There are people from Bengal whose phones were tapped and it includes journalists. It also has to be looked into that who among the judiciary fell victim to the same."
Nationwide controversy broke out and the session in Parliament turned stormy after allegations that the Pegasus software developed by Israeli spyware firm NSO had been misused to spy on Indian lawyers, journalists, government officials and others cropped up.
Israel-based spyware firm NSO is best known for its Pegasus spyware, which it claims is sold only to "vetted governments" and not to private entities. The company, however, does not reveal which governments are its clients.
Trinamool Congress had decided to continue its protest in Parliament till both the Prime Minister and the Union Home minister give a statement in connection with the controversy. Banerjee had also demanded the same and had stated that it would not have become possible to procure the spyware "without required clearances of the Government of India".
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya welcomed the move of the Bengal government to constitute the commission. "It is good that the commission has been set up. Now, we have to keenly wait to know what it finds out," he said.