Pegasus Case In Supreme Court: Government Didn't Co-Operate; Lack Of Conclusive Evidence, Says Committee

The three-member technical committee, appointed by the Supreme Court last year, has found no conclusive evidence of the use of the Pegasus software among the phones it examined.

Five of the 29 phones were found to contain some malware but there was no conclusive evidence of the use of Pegasus, the Chief Justice of India informed of the committee‘s finding.

The CJI also cited the committee’s report to say that the government did not cooperate and took the same stance as it had taken during the court hearings.

In October last year, the Supreme Court of India set up a committee to look into the allegations of the use of spyware Pegasus against journalists, activists, and members of the civil society, among others.

The three-member technical committee comprised:

• Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, professor (cyber security and digital forensics) and dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

• Prabaharan P, professor (school of engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala.

• Ashwin Anil Gumaste, institute chair associate professor (computer science and engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra.

Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran was appointed to oversee the functioning of the committee.

The top court bench, presided by Chief Justice of India Justice NV Ramana, had at the time rejected the national security argument raised by the central government for not filing a detailed reply on the petitions seeking the probe.

The committee subsequently submitted its report and a separate report was also filed by the overseeing judge. The bench noted that it will upload the recommendations by Justice Raveendran on the court website.

As far as the other parts of the reports are concerned, the bench said that it will look into what aspects of the report can be provided and adjourned the hearing for four weeks.