NEW DELHI: Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday, highlighting the recent verdict by a US court in a Pegasus case, asked if the Supreme Court would carry out a further inquiry into the alleged use of software to illegally hack the devices.
On Friday, a US judge ruled against Israel’s NSO Group, holding it responsible for hacking WhatsApp and breaching its contract. The lawsuit accused NSO of exploiting a flaw in WhatsApp to install spyware called Pegasus. The case will now proceed to trial to determine the damages NSO must pay.
Surjewala, citing the US ruling, claimed that 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted.
“The Pegasus spyware case verdict proves how 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted in the illegal spyware racket,” Surjewala said in a post on X.
The Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP further said it was time for the central government to disclose the 300 names targeted through the spyware.
“Who are the two Union ministers? Who are the three opposition leaders? Who is the constitutional authority? Who are the journalists? Who are the business persons? What information was retrieved by the BJP government and agencies? How was it used – misused and to what consequence?” the Congress leader asked.
Surjewala further said: “Will the Supreme Court take note of the judgment of the US court in Meta v/s NSO? Will the Supreme Court proceed to make public the report of the Committee of Technical Experts on Pegasus Spyware, submitted to it in 2021-22?”
The Congress leader asked if the top court, considering the US verdict, would direct Meta to submit 300 names to put Pegasus case to a conclusive end.
“Will the Supreme Court now ask Meta to submit to itself the 300 names to meet the ends of justice in the Pegasus case?” Surjewala asked.
“Shouldn’t Facebook (now Meta) now have a responsibility to release the names of 300 Indians targeted by Pegasus, considering WhatsApp and Facebook have the biggest subscriber base in India and they have a ‘duty of care and disclosure’ to its clients in India?” he further said.
What is the Pegasus controversy?
The high-profile Pegasus snooping scandal brought the hot-button issue of state surveillance back into focus in India in 2021. The issue blew up after an investigation by an international media consortium under the Pegasus Project revealed that thousands of phone numbers were allegedly targeted by the Pegasus spyware created by NSO Group, an Israeli software company.
Several prominent Indians, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Pralhad Patel, poll-strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, were said to be potential targets of the spyware.
The issue led to multiple disruptions in Parliament sessions then, with opposition members causing a ruckus in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Later, the Supreme Court said its technical expert committee, after months of forensic scrutiny, could not find Pegasus spyware in the 29 mobile phones of complainants, but detected malware in five of them.
