The Editors’ Guild of India has approached the Supreme Court demanding that the Pegasus spyware scandal be investigated, NDTV reported. It also asked the court to form a Special Investigation Team and question the government on the spyware contract. The Guild also wants a list of the people the spyware was used on.
The Supreme Court will be hearing the matter on Thursday.The Pegasus scandal was broken by a consortium of global media houses last month, exposing that the government had spied on journalists and politicians, among other people. Senior journalists such as N Ram and Sashi Kumar, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas and lawyer ML Sharma have already approached the court seeking details on whether the government used the spyware for surveillance or not.
Among the people who were targeted by the spyware, senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and four others, have also filed petitions and asked the court to declare the use of the spyware as “illegal and unconstitutional”, NDTV said in the report. Their petition said that their fundamental rights had been violated.
The Wire, which broke the scandal in India, said that over 142 Indians were targeted which included Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, poll strategist Prashant Kishor, and over 40 journalists. Amnesty International also confirmed the security breach after forensic analysis.
