Pegasus Case in India: The technical committee appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate if the Pegasus spyware was used by the government says that malware was found in 5 mobile phones, but it is difficult to say if it was Pegasus. Read on to know the complete story of the Pegasus case in India, the Pegasus project, and the findings of the Pegasus investigation committee.
What Is Pegasus? An Overview
Pegasus is spyware designed by an Israeli technology and cyber-arms firm, the NSO Group. The spyware can be covertly deployed on mobile phones and is compatible with almost all versions of iOS and Android.
The spyware can read text messages, collect passwords, track calls, track locations, access the target device’s camera and microphone, and gather information from applications.
The Israeli government classifies Pegasus as a cyber-arm. Moreover, only national governments can purchase it, that too, after the Israeli government’s authorization.
The Pegasus Project
The Pegasus Project was a collaborative initiative taken up by 17 media organizations. It investigated the use of the Israeli spyware, Pegasus, by the government on business personas, activists, opposition leaders, and journalists.
A target list of 50,000 phone numbers was leaked to Forbidden Stories, out of which 300 were Indian numbers. However, a point to note here is that the mere presence of a phone number on the list does not guarantee the use of spyware. To confirm if the spyware was used on a number, a forensic examination of the device is needed.
The Supreme Court set up a technical committee to investigate the matter. The phones who are suspected to be snooped on by the government were asked to be submitted.
The Pegasus Case In India- History So Far
It was in July 2021, that the speculation regarding the use of Pegasus spyware to track Indian personal devices came to light. During this time, it was revealed that the powerful Israeli spyware designed by Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group, is suspected to be used to target mobile devices of people in India and some other countries.
According to leaked information, a total of 300 numbers used by Indian citizens, including a constitutional authority, several journalists, business persons, civil society leaders, two ministers in the central government, and around three leaders from the opposition, may have been tracked by the spyware.
Following the furor, the central government rejected the conclusions made by the global media investigation regarding the use of Pegasus. However, the central government refused to supply any facts on the matter.
October 2021- The Supreme Court ordered an investigation to dig into the allegations regarding unauthorized surveillance through Pegasus. For this purpose, the SC formed a special committee comprising three members and one supervisor. The investigation was to be headed by Justice Raveendran.
The Pegasus Committee And Its Members
Selecting the experts for the pegasus committee had been a tough task for the Supreme Court. The formation of such a community required the SC to pick experts who are not only independent and competent but also free from prejudices.
The Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee to oversee the allegations of unauthorized surveillance through Pegasus.
The Pegasus committee members appointed by the Supreme Court are:
- Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary
Dean of National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar
- Dr. Prabaharan P.
(Professor at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Kerala)
- Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste
(Institute Char Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay)
The committee will be supervised by retired Justice RV Raveendran. He is a highly-respected member of the world of law, and is often referred to as” one of the legends who have increased the prestige of the Supreme Court of India.” A former chief of India’s external intelligence agency, Ashok Joshi, and the global head of cybersecurity services at TCS, Dr. Sandeep Oberoi, were to assist Justice Raveendran in the supervising work.
Why Was The Committee Formed In The First Place?
Allegedly, the unauthorized surveillance of personal devices violated the citizen’s fundamental rights. Committees like these play the role of an agent to the court, determining the unknown or disputed facts that enforce these rights. Such committees have the right to prepare ground reports, summon witnesses, and more.
The purpose of such committees is to find relevant facts for the court to draw conclusions on if the fundamental rights were infringed or not. The court thus, with the help of the ground reports by the committee, passes the right orders.
In this case, the most important question is that if the government made use of the Pegasus, can the law justify such an act?
The Role Of The Committee
The Supreme Court stated seven terms of reference for the SC-appointed Pegasus Investigative Committee. These terms of reference were actually facts that required to be ascertained.
The references included the task to determine who acquired the Pegasus spyware. It was also instructed to look into if the petitioners were actually targeted by the software or not. It was also asked what laws justified the use of Pegasus against citizens of the country.
Additionally, the Supreme Court also instructed the committee to recommend a policy and legal framework on cyber security in order to safeguard the citizens’ right to privacy.
The time period expected from the committee to submit the report was eight weeks.
The Findings
The Supreme Court made an official announcement of the report by the Pegasus committee appointed by the SC for the purpose of investigating allegations that the personal communication devices of certain people including civil society activists, journalists, politicians, and more were illegally targeted using Pegasus, the Israeli-designed software on August 25, 2022.
The report is submitted in a sealed cover. The details are not available right now.
However, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Surya Kant commented that the Centre did not cooperate with the committee. This is not the first time though that the Government of India had refused to say if the Pegasus spyware had been used.
Interestingly, the committee found that there was malware in 5 devices out of the 29 devices that it got. However, it couldn’t determine whether the malware found was Pegasus.
Furthermore, there was a request by the people who submitted their personal devices that the findings not be made public. The Supreme Court would thus consider the extent to which the report is to be released publicly.
The Bench stated that it would display the report submitted by Justice RV Raveendran on its website.
Did The Indian Government Use The Spyware?
Pegasus is indeed a powerful cyber tool and thus, the Israeli company NSO Group stated that the spyware is not to be sold to individuals, but only to governments or government agencies.
The Government, though, stays mute on the issue and as per the Supreme Court, it did not cooperate with the investigative committee.
In January, The New York Times stated that after the Prime Minister’s Israel visit, the Government of India purchased Pegasus as part of a package of weapons worth $2 billion, along with a missile system.
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