The Pegasus panel, in its report submitted in the Supreme Court, said the presence of controversial Israeli spyware Pegasus was not conclusively established in 29 mobile phones examined, and also the Central government did not cooperate in the probe.
The top court-appointed panel said five out of 29 mobile phones were possibly infected with some malware, but that does not mean it was Pegasus spyware.
The panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran, had submitted its report in the apex court last month. The panel said the government did not fully cooperate while examining the phone for the malware.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said one thing the committee has said that the government did not cooperate.
The bench said: “The same stand you took here, you took there.” At this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, replied that he is not aware of that.
The report consisted of three parts: report of the technical committee, digital images of phones examined for infection due to spyware, and the report of overseeing judge Justice Raveendran. The bench indicated that it may upload the report of Justice Raveendran, but the other parts of the report may not be made public.
The report suggested that a country’s cyber security needs to be enhanced, and while protecting the privacy of the citizens, it is necessary to ensure that no unauthorized surveillance is allowed.
It pointed out that there are certain malwares that could be misused, they cause security concerns, and also violate the privacy of citizens. The panel suggested that some mechanism should be put in place to check illegal surveillance, and the private firms involved in surveillance should be prosecuted.
On October 27, last year, the top court said it was compelled to take up the cause to determine the truth, as it appointed an independent expert technical committee supervised by Justice Raveendran, to probe the Pegasus snooping allegations.
The top court had authorized the technical committee to devise its own procedure to effectively implement and answer the terms of reference. The committee could hold any investigation it deemed fit and take statements of any person in connection with the inquiry and call for records of any authority or individual.
Justice Raveendran was to oversee the functioning of the technical committee and he was assisted by Alok Joshi, former IPS officer and Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, Sub Committee in International Organization of Standardisation/International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee.
The three members of the technical committee were Dr Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Dr Prabaharan P., Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala ; and Dr Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
A batch of petitions including those by advocate ML Sharma, CPI-M MP John Brittas, journalist N. Ram, former IIM professor Jagdeep Chokkar, Narendra Mishra, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Rupesh Kumar Singh, SNM Abdi and the Editors Guild of India were filed. seeking an independent probe into the Pegasus snooping allegations.
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