Pegasus row
Pegasus: Supreme Court to hear pleas seeking probe on snooping row on Thursday
New Delhi/IBNS: A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court will hear petitions seeking a special investigation into the Pegasus scandal involving allegations of snooping on opposition politicians, journalists and others by the Israeli spyware.
The petitions have been filed by journalist N Ram, CPM leader John Brittas and advocate ML Sharma.
The petitions seek to ask the apex court to direct the government to disclose whether it has obtained a licence for the spyware or used it directly or indirectly to conduct surveillance of any kind.
More than 1,000 phone numbers in India appeared on the snooping list of the Pegasus, stated a collaborative investigation report by The Wire, The Washington Post and other media partners in 10 countries.
Names of high profile Indian political personalities like Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, former poll strategist Prashant Kishor, new IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister Prahlad Patel and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee among others have featured in the potential target list of the Israeli spyware, The Wire had earlier reported in an explosive revelation.
NSO had denied the snooping allegations, claiming that it only offers its spyware to "vetted governments" and said it was "considering a defamation lawsuit".
However, forensic tests had confirmed that some of them were successfully snooped upon by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware, The Wire reported.
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