Only two people pledged affected devices: SC panel on Pegasus

New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed technical committee to probe the Pegasus issue said that only two people have so far pledged to submit their devices suspected to be infected by the malware and the panel is forced to extend the deadline for more people to turn up, PTI reported.

The committee extended the date till February 8 for people to approach the panel and submit devices suspected to be compromised. The committee's notice issued on Thursday read, "it is once again requesting those who have reasonable causes to believe their mobile instrument is infected with Pegasus spyware to come forward and contact the technical committee with reasons as to why they believe that their mobile instrument may have been infected with Pegasus malware on or before February 8, 2022, by an email."

The fresh development occurred after new allegations regarding the malware arose recently. A New York Times report claimed that India bought Pegasus as part of a 2 billion US dollar defence deal with Israel.

The NYT report claims that the deal was signed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel in July 2017. The deal had hosted the snooping ware and a missile system as central pieces. This has triggered a new controversy on the issue that was floating for nearly a year. The opposition had accused the government of illegal snooping, which is as grave as 'treason', it said.

Modi's 2017 visit to Israel itself had made headlines since India maintained a policy favourable to the Palestinian cause.

However, New Delhi or the Israeli government has admitted that India has bought the spyware so far.

It was in July last year, a global consortium of media houses had revealed the spyware being used by several governments around the globe against opponents, journalists etc.