Senior journalists move SC for probe into Pegasus row
New Delhi: Veteran journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar have moved the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe by its sitting or retired judge into reports of government agencies using Israeli spyware Pegasus to allegedly snoop on eminent citizens, politicians and scribes.
The petition, likely to come up for hearing within the next few days, seeks investigation into the hacking of phones using the Pegasus spyware saying it represented an attempt by agencies and organisations to muzzle and chill the exercise of free speech and expression of dissent in India. It also sought a direction to the Centre to disclose if the government or any of its agencies obtained a license for Pegasus spyware and used it, either directly or indirectly, to conduct surveillance in any manner.
The petitioners claimed that investigations involving several leading publications around the world have revealed that more than 142 Indians, including journalists, lawyers, ministers, opposition politicians, and activists, have been identified as potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus software.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary panel on Information Technology will question government officials on allegations relating to suspected phone tapping, the committee chairman and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Tuesday asserting that it is the "most important issue" for many members.
The 32-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, for which the listed agenda is 'Citizens' data security and privacy', according to a notification issued by Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The panel, which has the maximum members from the ruling BJP, has summoned officials from the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Forensic analysis by the Security Lab of Amnesty International of several mobile phones, belonging to people targeted for surveillance, has confirmed Pegasus-induced security breaches, the petition claimed.
The targeted surveillance using military-grade spyware is an unacceptable violation of the right to privacy which has been held to be a fundamental right under Articles 14 (equality before the law), 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) by the Supreme Court, it added.
The hacking of phones belonging to journalists, doctors, lawyers, activists, ministers and Opposition politicians seriously compromises the effective exercise of the fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, the petition maintained.
Such an act has an obvious chilling effect on expression by threatening invasion into the most core and private aspects of a person's life, it added.
The petition said the hacking of phones using the Pegasus spyware constituted a criminal offence punishable under Sections 66 (computer-related offences), 66B (punishment for dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device), 66E (punishment for violation of privacy) and 66F (punishment for cyberterrorism) of the IT Act, punishable with imprisonment and/or fine.
The attack prima facie constitutes an act of cyber-terrorism that has several grave political and security ramifications, especially considering that the devices of government ministers, senior political figures and constitutional functionaries which may contain sensitive information have been targeted, it added.
Earlier, another petition was filed by a lawyer before the Apex Court seeking a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the snooping row.
