Bengal Pegasus panel to continue probe

Kolkata: The two-member commission set up by the Bengal government in July to probe allegations of snooping in the state arising out of the

Pegasus

issue will continue its work.

The commission, comprising retired Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur and former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, will soon start scanning statements it has received so far and also send interrogatory questionnaires to those whose names have surfaced from the preliminary data.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday constituted a committee to probe the Pegasus spyware snooping issue.

On Thursday, Justice Lokur and Justice Bhattacharya held an online meeting to discuss their next course of action. To this end, they would be scanning around 37 statements received so far from various persons for names of people affected by Pegasus spyware. Even persons with knowledge of such interception of telephone conversations would be questioned, the commission decided. The names disclosed by various statements will be verified by the commission.

Instead of directly questioning such persons or asking them to appear before the commission, it favours sending them an interrogatory questionnaire. The questionnaire would not be a prototype as posers would vary from person to person, depending on the context.

The commission’s officials had been asked to analyse all the data received so far, and to track persons or agencies whose names had appeared in the public domain, including in court petitions. According to an official, statements had been submitted from across the country, including Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, other than from Bengal.


Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.