Pegasus snooping case: Supreme Court-appointed panel submits interim report

A three-judge bench will consider the report on Feb 23 when petitions seeking an independent probe into the scandal are scheduled to be taken up for hearing

PGurus Newsdesk

February 22, 2022

A three-judge bench will consider the report on Feb 23 when petitions seeking an independent probe into the scandal are scheduled to be taken up for hearing

Pegasus case: Top court to examine technical panel’s interim report on Feb 23

The Pegasus probe panel, appointed by the Supreme Court has submitted an interim report appraising the apex court about the progress on the probe.

The panel, which included three experts on cyber security, digital forensics, networks, and hardware, was asked to “enquire, investigate and determine” whether Pegasus spyware was used for snooping on citizens and their probe would be monitored by former apex court judge R V Raveendran.

According to sources, the panel has submitted an interim report in the apex court. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli will take up the petitions in the matter on February 23.

As per the panel, only two people submitted their mobiles phones for forensic examination.

The three members of the technical committee are 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.

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 a retired top court judge, Justice R V 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 can hold an investigation it deems fit and take statements of any person in connection with the inquiry and call for records of any authority or individual.

Justice Raveendran is overseeing the functioning of the technical committee and he is assisted by Alok Joshi, a former IPS officer, and Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, Sub Committee in International Organisation of Standardisation/ International Electro-Technical Commission/ Joint Technical Committee.

A batch of petitions including those by advocate M L Sharma, CPI-M MP John Brittas, journalist N Ram, former IIM professor Jagdeep Chokkar, Narendra Mishra, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Rupesh Kumar Singh, S N M Abdi, and Editors Guild of India was filed seeking an independent probe into the Pegasus snooping allegations.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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