People's letter to CJI seeking SC intervention in Pegasus scandal

New Delhi: Over 500 signatories including individuals and groups across the country have written a letter to the Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Thursday, seeking the Supreme Court's immediate intervention in the alleged Pegasus snooping matter.

The signatories which include acclaimed writers, journalists, lawyers, academicians and activists have also demanded to declare a "moratorium on the export, sale, transfer and use of Pegasus" spyware in the country.

The letter urged the top court to direct the Centre and the Israeli firm NSO to provide answers to several questions in the matter in a time-bound manner.

In the letter, the signatories have expressed shock over media reports that the spyware was used for surveillance of women students, academics, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and victims of sexual violence.

"Above all, we look to the Supreme Court to declare a moratorium on the export, sale, transfer and use of Pegasus in India," said the signatories to the letter.

The letter also raises the issue of the woman who accused ex- CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment being snooped and 10 mobile numbers linked to her family members being hacked.

They have also requested the top court to adopt gender-just sexual harassment, data protection and privacy policy.

"The Pegasus spyware investigation has unveiled how its military-grade malware installed on the phones of those targeted converts the device for use by a consumer to an object that spies on the individual, steal data and transmits data to unknown persons/databases. This has been defined as cyber warfare by experts in the field and it is nothing less than an act of state-sponsored cyber-terrorism against individuals," the letter said.

The letter said the Pegasus software is sold only to governments, ostensibly for "national security'' and "counter-terrorism" purposes.

"The Indian list of targets indicates that the software was used, not to counter terrorism, but to gather information on, and perhaps thereby seek to control, opposition politicians, the judiciary, the Press, as well as activists and others in civil society," it said.

Various activists have signed the letter, including Aruna Roy, Anjali Bhardwaj, Harsh Mander; scholars and eminent lawyers like Vrinda Grover, Jhuma Sen, among others.

An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware.