Woman who accused EX-CJI of harassment in surveillance list
The list of phones potentially targeted using Pegasus software has the name of a Supreme Court staffer who had accused former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, according to reports.
Justice Gogoi, who retired as CJI in November 2019, is currently a nominated Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. The verified phone numbers on the list brought out by a global collaborative investigative project has named the staffer, her husband, and her brothersin-law, whose phones were targeted with the spy software around April 2019, the same time when the woman staffer had levelled allegations against the former CJI, a report in The Wire said.
HT could not independently verify this.
In all, 11 phone numbers of the woman complainant and her family were targeted, the report said, adding that surveillance on three phone numbers belonging to the woman began days after she went public with her allegations in a sworn affidavit issued to Supreme Court judges on April 19, 2019.
In her complaint, she alleged that as a junior court assistant in October 2018, while working in the office of CJI, she was sexually harassed and later told by the judge not to reveal it to anyone.
The allegations were denied by CJI as “absolutely false and scurrilous” and as part of a bigger conspiracy to “destabilise the
NEW DELHI:
judiciary”. A special bench of the Supreme Court was constituted to examine the larger conspiracy to destabilise the judiciary and the task was assigned to a former SC judge to prepare a report.
Meanwhile, in-house proceedings were initiated on the victim’s complaint. Initially, she participated in the proceedings but withdrew midway after she was denied legal counsel. In May 2019, the committee gave its report that the charges were not made out. She was terminated from service of the Supreme Court on the ground of procedural irregularities. Even a complaint was lodged against her by a man from Haryana accusing her of taking money to get him a job in the Supreme Court. This case was later closed by a Delhi court for want of evidence.
The woman even alleged that her husband and brother-in-law, working with the Delhi Police were suspended and her family was harassed following her complaint. They were later reinstated. In January 2020, over a month after the retirement of CJI Gogoi, the woman staffer was reinstated.
Justice Gogoi refused to comment on the matter.