It is difficult to disagree with the argument that there cannot be a parallel probe by any inquiry commission into the allegations of unlawful surveillance using the Pegasus spyware after the Supreme Court ordered an independent inquiry . It is no surprise, then, that the top court has stayed the functioning of the Commission constituted by the West Bengal government and headed by retired judge, Justice Madan B. Lokur. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had taken note of the allegations of surveillance that possibly targeted personages in West Bengal, and was on good legal ground when she took the first legal step towards unearthing the truth. It was a step that was warranted by the circumstances then, given the Union government’s refusal to acknowledge that it possessed such spyware or whether those identified by an international media investigation as targets were subject to any sort of surveillance in the country. Reports by an international consortium of journalists said that 300 out of 50,000 likely targets of Pegasus spyware were Indians . Subsequently, the Government also refused to cede any ground in the Supreme Court, and declined to give a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ reply to the Court’s questions. Stonewalling attempts to raise it in Parliament and sticking to its guns in Court, the Government inevitably invited an order from the Court for an independent investigation. It is significant that the Bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, ruled that the bogey of national security was not an adequate reason not to have a credible inquiry into the allegations.
A fresh report suggesting that Pegasus was used to target jailed activist Rona Wilson’s mobile phone underscores the urgent need to persist with the investigation into the illegal use of the spyware in India. U.S. forensic investigation company Arsenal Consulting has said Mr. Wilson’s phone was attacked as many as 49 times and it was successfully infected by the time he was arrested in June 2018 for alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon case. Earlier, the firm had claimed that NetWire, a remote access Trojan, was used to plant letters on Mr. Wilson’s computer. Advocate and co-accused Surendra Gadling was also targeted in the same manner. These developments raise suspicion about the genuineness of the evidence being relied upon to try him and others for an unsubstantiated Maoist plot. There is little doubt that the Court-ordered probe by experts supervised by a panel headed by the retired Supreme Court judge, Justice R.V. Raveendran, should be taken to its logical conclusion and the country be told whether Pegasus, or any other spyware, was used to infect mobile phones and other devices of lawyers, activists and journalists, among others. There is much riding on this judicially overseen inquiry, and it behoves the government of the day to extend its full cooperation and not pose any impediment to its independent functioning.
