Justice Arun Mishra's Old Mobile Number In List Of Potential Pegasus Surveillance Targets : Report
A mobile number which was associated with Justice Arun Mishra at one point of time was in the list of potential targets of snooping through the Isreali spyware Pegasus, reported The Wire.It was also reported that mobile numbers of two officials of the Supreme Court registry were in the list.As per the report, a Rajasthan mobile number formerly registered in the name of Justice Arun Mishra,...
A mobile number which was associated with Justice Arun Mishra at one point of time was in the list of potential targets of snooping through the Isreali spyware Pegasus, reported The Wire.
It was also reported that mobile numbers of two officials of the Supreme Court registry were in the list.
As per the report, a Rajasthan mobile number formerly registered in the name of Justice Arun Mishra, who retired from the Supreme Court in September 2020, was added to the database in 2019. Quoting sources in the BSNL, the report states that the number was registered in the name of Justice Arun Mishra from September 18, 2010 to September 19, 2018.
The newsportal reached out to Justice Arun Mishra, who is at present the Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission, for his confirmation. "The number +9194XXXXXXX is not with me since 2013-2014. I don't use this number," he replied.
The report also states that the mobile numbers of Supreme Court Registry officials NK Gandhi and TI Rajput, both of the now retired, feature on the list.
The numbers of three lawyers are also reported to be in the list. They are Advocates Aljo Joseph and Vjiay Aggarwal, who represented AgustaWestland accused Christian Michel and PNB scam accused Nirav Modi respectively. Also, the number of M. Thangathurai, a junior lawyer working in the chambers of former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, is stated to be in the list.
It is impossible to establish if they remained mere persons of interest or were actually subjected to intrusive surveillance, without a forensic examination of their smartphones, the Wire report added.
The Pegasus controversy erupted on July 18 after The Wire and several other international publications published reports about the mobile numbers which were potential targets of the spyware service given by NSO company to various governments, including India. 40 Indian journalists, political leaders like Rahul Gandhi, election strategist Prashant Kishore, former ECI member Ashok Lavassa etc are reported to be in the list of targets, as per The Wire.