Senior journalists N. Ram and, Sashi Kumar have moved to the Supreme Court demanding investigation into reports of military-grade Israeli spyware Pegasus being allegedly used to spy on opposition leaders, two Union ministers and 40 journalists by a sitting or former judge.
The petition says the global investigation involving several leading publications around the world has exposed that more than 142 persons in India were identified as potential targets for surveillance using Israeli firm NSO’s Pegasus spyware.
According to the petition the Supreme Court should direct the government to disclose whether it has obtained a license to conduct surveillance of any kind for the spyware or used it – directly or indirectly.
According to the petitioners, the forensic testing of numerous mobile phones belonging to people listed as potential targets by the Security Lab of Amnesty International has confirmed security violations.
The list of 300 phones from India revealed to be on the list of potential targets on the leaked database of NSO including opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, two union ministers, businessman Anil Ambani, a former CBI chief, a virologist and 40 journalists. Though, it is not established that all the phones were hacked.
