Pegasus: Woman who accused ex-CJI of harassment in surveillance list

The verified phone numbers on the list brought out by a global collaborative investigative project has named the staffer, her husband, and her brothers-in-law, whose phones were targeted with the spy software around April 2019

The list of phones potentially targeted using Pegasus software has the name of a Supreme Court staffer who had accused former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, according to reports.

In all, 11 phone numbers of the woman complainant and her family were targeted, the report said. (HT File)

Justice Gogoi, who retired as CJI in November 2019, is currently a nominated Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. The verified phone numbers on the list brought out by a global collaborative investigative project has named the staffer, her husband, and her brothers-in-law, whose phones were targeted with the spy software around April 2019, the same time when the woman staffer had levelled allegations against the former CJI, a report in The Wire said. HT could not independently verify this.

In all, 11 phone numbers of the woman complainant and her family were targeted, the report said, adding that surveillance on three phone numbers belonging to the woman began days after she went public with her allegations in a sworn affidavit issued to SC judges on April 19, 2019.

In her complaint, she alleged that as a junior court assistant in October 2018, while working in the office of CJI, she was sexually harassed and later told by the judge not to reveal it to anyone.

The allegations were denied by CJI as “absolutely false and scurrilous” and as part of a bigger conspiracy to “destabilise the judiciary”.