Pegasus Snooping Row: Rahul Gandhi Hails SC's 'Big Step', Poses Question 'Who Authorised It'

The apex court has appointed an independent expert technical committee supervised by a retired top court judge, Justice RV Raveendran, to probe the Pegasus snooping allegations.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that Pegasus snooping was an attempt to 'crush' Indian democracy. The former Congress President's remarks came hours after the Supreme Court appointed a three-member panel of cyber experts to probe the alleged use of Israeli spyware for snooping.

The apex court has appointed an independent expert technical committee supervised by a retired top court judge, Justice RV Raveendran, to probe the Pegasus snooping allegations.

"During last Parliament session, we raised Pegasus issue. Today, SC has given its opinion and supported what we were saying," Rahul Gandhi said. 

"We were asking three basic questions - who authorised Pegasus, which agency, which person authorised Pegasus as we all know Pegasus cannot be bought by a private individual, it has to be bought by a government; second question was who was it used against; final thing was, did any other country have access to information of our people," the former Congress chief said.

Rahul Gandhi also said that we are happy that Supreme Court has accepted to look into the Pegasus issue. 

"We will raise this issue again in Parliament. We will try to have a debate in Parliament. I am sure the BJP will not like to have a debate on this," he said.

Asserting that alleged snooping using Pegasus is an "attempt to crush Indian democracy", Gandhi said it is a "big step that the Supreme Court has said that they are going to look into this matter. I am confident that we will get the truth out of this".

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said while technology is a useful tool for improving the lives of the people, at the same time, it can also be used to breach that sacred private space of an individual.

"Privacy is not the singular concern of journalists or social activists. Every citizen of India ought to be protected against violations of privacy", emphasized the bench, adding this right is directly infringed when there is surveillance on an individual, either by state or any external agency.