Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the Supreme Court’s decision to form a committee of experts to enquire into the Pegasus snooping issue is a “big step” and that he is confident that truth will come out.
Addressing a press conference, Gandhi said that the alleged snooping through Pegasus spyware is an attempt to ‘crush’ Indian democracy.
“Pegasus is an attempt to crush Indian democracy. It is a big step that the Supreme Court has said that they will look into this matter. I am confident that we will get truth out of this,” the Congress leader said.
“During the last Parliament session, we raised Pegasus issue. Today, the SC has given it opinion and supported what we were saying. We were asking three questions – Who authorised Pegasus?, who was it used against and did any other country have access to information of our people,” he added.
Welcoming the SC order, the Congress leader launched a veiled attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“We welcome the order of the Supreme Court in the matter. It is not a political matter – it is an attack on the democratic structure of the country, on the people and on freedom. Only two people can give the directing for this attack and when the truth comes out they will have no answer,” he tweeted in Hindi.
He further said that Congress will raise the alleged snopping matter again in Parliament and will try to have a debate on it. “I am sure the BJP will not like to have a debate on this,” Gandhi said.
“Pegasus was used against CMs, former PMs, BJP’s ministers among others. Was Prime Minister and Home Minister getting the data obtained through the use of Pegasus? If the data of phone tapping of Election Commission, CEC and Opposition leaders are going to PM, then it’s a criminal act,” he added.
Earlier today, the apex court appointed a three-member expert panel to probe into the alleged use of Israeli spyware Pegasus for surveillance of certain prominent people in India.
The committee headed by RV Raveendran, former top court Judge, also comprises Alok Joshi and Sandeep Oberoi.
The apex court bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana said that the panel has been formed to probe the ‘falsity’ in the Pegasus row.
An international media consortium recently reported that more than 300 verified mobile phone numbers of eminent personalities, including opposition leaders and ministers in India could have been allegedly targeted for hacking through Israeli Pegasus spyware sold only to government agencies.
