Pegasus issue: Senior journalists move SC seeking independent enquiry

Veteran journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar have moved the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe by its sitting or retired judge into the reports of alleged snooping by government agencies on eminent citizens politicians and scribes by using Israeli spyware PegasusThe petition likely to come up for hearing within next few days sought to investigate if the illegal hacking into the phones using the Pegasus spyware represented an attempt by agencies and organisations to muzzle and chill the exercise of free speech and expression of dissent in IndiaIt also sought a direction to the Centre to disclose if the government or any of its agencies obtained license for Pegasus spyware and used it either directly or indirectly to conduct surveillance in any mannerThe petitioners claimed that investigation involving several leading publications around the world has revealed that more than 142 Indians including journalists lawyers government ministers opposition politicians constitutional functionaries and civil society activists have been identified as potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus softwareAlso Read Naresh Goyal Ajay Singh Prashant Ruia PSU chiefs in Pegasus listIt climaxed that the forensic analysis of several mobile phones belonging to persons targeted for surveillance by the Security Lab of Amnesty International have confirmed Pegasusinduced security breachesThe targeted surveillance using militarygrade 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 addedIt said the targeted hacking of phones belonging to journalists doctors lawyers civil society activists government ministers and opposition politicians seriously compromises the effective exercise of the fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 191a of the ConstitutionIt has an obvious chilling effect on expression by threatening invasion into the most core and private aspects of a persons life it claimedIt claimed that the hack occasioned by the Pegasus spyware constituted a criminal offence punishable under interalia Section 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 andor fineThe attack prima facie constitutes an act of cyberterrorism 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 addedEarlier a petition was filed by a lawyer before the apex court seeking a courtmonitored probe by a Special Investigation Team SIT into the snooping rowThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever