Lawyers move Supreme Court on NYT’s report on India regarding Pegasus spyware

Plea has been filed in the Supreme Court on the alleged use of Israeli spyware Pegasus, seeking that the court take cognisance of a New York Times report on it and order a probe into the 2017 defence deal with Israel.

Advocate ML Sharma moved the Supreme court over the Pegasus issue and demanded that an FIR should be registered against the concerned officer or authority for the transaction and an investigation should be initiated.

The application cited a New York Times report that said the Indian government had purchased Pegasus in 2017 as part of a $2 billion package for weapons, including missile systems.

He has also sought a direction to prosecute concerned persons including the Prime Minister.

The applicant has argued that the Government of India blocked the said news of New York Times but he has a copy of You-tube reporting the said report, and the Indian newspapers also published the said report in part.

Mr. Sharma, alleged the "deal was not placed in the House for approval and breach of trust for personal political interest by the Prime Minister and BJP party is illegal, attract criminal breach of trust embezzling of public money..."

The NYT, in its report titled 'The Battle for the World's Most Powerful Cyberweapon', said the Israeli firm NSO Group had for nearly a decade been "selling its surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising that it could do what no one else -- not a private company, not even a state intelligence service -- could do: consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone".

In one of the significant verdicts in recent times over the issue of citizens' right to privacy, a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana had said that mere invocation of national security by the state cannot render the judiciary a "mute spectator" and asserted that indiscriminate spying on individuals in a democratic country cannot be allowed.

The apex court said Justice Raveendran will oversee the functioning of the three-member panel of cyber security, digital forensics, networks and hardware.

It had said that former IPS officer Alok Joshi and Sundeep Oberoi -- Chairman, Sub Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/ International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee) -- will assist Justice Raveendran to oversee the task to the committee.