On Pegasus snoopgate, Supreme Court to hear plea seeking court-monitored probe on August 5

The Supreme Court (SC) on August 5 will hear the plea filed by senior journalist N Ram and others on the alleged Pegasus snooping case. The plea filed in the top court seeks an independent Court-monitored probe into the Pegasus report, which has caused a political uproar that has largely rendered the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament a washout. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had earlier mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India N V Ramana.

Pegasus Snooping Case: 500 individuals & groups write to Chief Justice of India

Earlier on July 29, over 500 individuals and groups had written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana seeking immediate intervention of the Supreme Court (SC) on the alleged Pegasus snooping case. Seeking a moratorium on the sale, transfer and use of Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus spyware in India, the signatories expressed shock over media reports that the spyware was used for surveillance of women students, academics, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and victims of sexual violence. 

What is Pegasus snooping case?

A report by 16 media houses claimed that around 300 verified Indian phones numbers, including journalists, politicians and government officials were allegedly spied on through the Pegasus software. As per a 'leaked' database, the Israeli spyware allegedly spied upon over 40 journalists, three major opposition leaders, two serving ministers among others. 

Earlier CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas filed a writ petition moving the apex court for a court-monitored investigation executed by an SIT into the alleged Pegasus snooping issue. The petition is pursuant to the statements by Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav in the Parliament to state that the Centre neither denied nor affirmed the allegations of snooping.

The plea read, "It is only an evasive statement of the Government. The Government has unequivocally accepted the statement of the company, NSO, which owns the alleged spyware technology and blindly accepted their version without investigation." The company in question, NSO, however, has rubbished the entire report.

(Image: Pixabay, ANI)