SC-appointed panel on Pegasus asks petitioners to submit devices for ‘technical evaluation’

A three-member panel constituted by the Supreme Court to look into allegations of snooping by the government using Israeli company NSO’s software Pegasus is learnt to have sent out mails to the petitioners asking them to submit their personal devices for “technical evaluation”.

The committee has, in the mail, stated that the petitioners would also be given the option of “making submissions under oath” before the retired Supreme Court judge Justice R V Raveendran-led panel.

The other members of the panel are Naveen Kumar Chaudhary of the National Forensic Sciences University, Professor Prabaharan Poornachandran, the Director at Centre for Internet Studies and Artificial Intelligence at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kolla, and Professor Ashwin Anil Gumaste from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

Though the mail mentions that the devices, where the Pegasus software was allegedly installed, will be collected in New Delhi, it does not mention the exact address, one of the sources said, adding that “it could be informed later”.

Earlier this year, in a series of reports published by several news outlets across the world, it was alleged that the Pegasus software had been used to snoop on journalists, activists, government officials, and even Cabinet ministers, including the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.