New Delhi: As the Pegasus phantom continues to hunt the government, revealing the details of victims who were subjected to digital surveillance using the spyware, reports say that the Pegasus eyes were not confined to a handful of influential people.
The leak reveals that the woman who had accused former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, of sexual harassment, was also a target of the Pegasus as at least eleven phone numbers related to her and her family are reported to have been found in the leaked list.
The telephone surveillance came into the light during an investigation conducted by Paris based Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International. The investigation was into a leaked list of 50,000 phone numbers globally suspected of being targeted through Pegasus.
Three hundred of the numbers were from India, which includes ministers, opposition leaders, journalists, a sitting judge, business persons and activists. Pegasus was sold to Indian government agencies by the Israeli NSO Group. The investigation has the partnership of The Wire, Washington Post, The Guardian and Le Monde, among 13 other international publications.
The woman, who worked as a junior assistant at the Supreme Court, had accused Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment in April 2019. She was flagged "a person of interest" and removed from her job. Also, the phone numbers of her husband and two of his brothers were marked.
She had written to 22 judges of the Supreme Court detailing the harassing incident that happened in October 2018 and the repercussions she faced. She had alleged in her affidavit that Gogoi hugged her, touched her body, and was asked to hold him.
She added that she was dismissed from service in December 2018, and the reason was that she took casual leave for one day without approval, among other two reasons. Also, her family members who were in the police service were suspended that month.
However, Gogoi responded to the allegations that she has a "criminal background" and had worked in SC for only two months. A panel of three judges dismissed the charges against Gogoi, stating lack of substance in her allegations.