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Pegasus panel gives report to Supreme Court

ByDeeksha Bhardwaj
Aug 02, 2022 04:34 AM IST

The Supreme Court is yet to set a next date of hearing for the case during whose proceedings the panel was formed under the supervision of retired Supreme Court judge justice RV Raveendran.

New Delhi: A three-member panel that was asked to probe whether Israeli spyware Pegasus was used to allegedly infiltrate the phones of several politicians, journalists, and activists in India, has submitted its report to the Supreme Court nearly a week ago, HT has learnt.

The Supreme Court is yet to set a next date of hearing for the case. (ANI)

The contents of the report remain confidential. The Supreme Court is yet to set a next date of hearing for the case during whose proceedings the panel was formed under the supervision of retired Supreme Court judge justice RV Raveendran. The case may be listed on August 12 before a bench comprising chief justice of India NV Ramana and justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli. HT reached out to Raveendran for comments on Monday but did not immediately get a response.

The panel comprises of Dr Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, dean of the National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar, Dr Prabaharan P, professor at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Kerala, and Dr Ashwin Anil Gumaste, an institute chair associate professor at IIT Bombay. The panel examined 29 devices by May for forensic analysis. “The matter is confidential and cannot be discussed as a particular procedure has to be followed,” a member of the panel said at the time.

According to the consortium, Pegasus can switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, and access the data on the device.

Speaking in Parliament on July 19, 2021, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw countered reports suggesting that the India government used Pegasus to hack into the phones of journalists, activists, Opposition leaders, and ministers. The reports were nothing but an “attempt to malign Indian democracy and its well-established institutions”, he said.

Also read: Jharkhand: Pegasus ‘target’ journo, arrested a day ago, has ‘Maoist links’

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appeared for the Union government while senior counsel Kapil Sibal, Shyam Divan, CU Singh and Rakesh Dwivedi, among others, were appearing for the bunch of petitions filed by lawyers, politicians, journalists and civil rights activists. The government denied the allegations.

In October 2021 — while hearing the Pegasus case -- when the top court set up the inquiry panel, it held that the Union government cannot get “a free pass every time” by raising the spectre of “national security” when the issues concern the “potential chilling effect” on right to privacy and freedom of speech.

It appointed the three-member panel, under the supervision of justice R V Raveendran. The committee, and a technical subcommittee, is carrying out a digital forensics analysis of devices suspected to have been targeted by the military grade spyware.

 
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