WB TO PROBE PEGASUS SNOOPING
West Bengal on Monday became the first state in the country to officially investigate the alleged “snoopgate” involving
Israeli spyware Pegasus as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in her bid to mount pressure on the BJP and the Centre set up a judicial inquiry.
West Bengal on Monday became the first state in the country to officially investigate the alleged “snoopgate” involving Israeli spyware Pegasus as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in her bid to mount pressure on the BJP and the Centre, set up a judicial inquiry commission before she left on a four-day visit to New Delhi.
The BJP, however, questioned the purpose of the probe panel of two retired judges and wondered if the Trinamul Congress supremo had plans to give her government a clean chit through her step of snooping on the Opposition leaders in the state using Pegasus.
Chairing a Cabinet meet at Nabanna, the state secretariat, Banerjee announced approval for “appointment of a commission of inquiry consisting of Justice Madan B. Lokur, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, and Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya, retired Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act 1952 in the matter of widely reported illegal hacking, monitoring, snooping, surveillance, recording of mobile phones etc of various persons in the state”.
She said: “You have seen how everyone in the judiciary, media, politics, civil rights were kept under surveillance of Pegasus. While Parliament is in session, we have been waiting the last one week for the Central government to decide on a probe under the monitoring of a Supreme Court judge to keep public faith intact on delivery of justice. But we found this government was not bothered about it. We set up the commission of inquiry. West Bengal is the first state to do it. It is among the aggrieved parties.”
Banerjee also hailed Justice Lokur as an “important judge” while also praising Justice Bhattacharya.
“They will probe who is behind the hacking and how it is done, since it is entirely illegal… Someone, if he does not wake up, needs to be woken up. This is a small step by us which will wake up others too. A notification has also been issued. We urge Justice Lokur and Justice Bhattacharya to join the panel immediately for investigation,” she added.
Hitting out at Banerjee, state BJP spokesman Shameek Bhattacharjee said: “The CM’s announcement raises doubt on the viability and legality of such a panel. which is an attempt to establish her politics. In the name of setting up a commission she is trying to come clean over allegations against her government of surveillance as there are questions on whether a police commissioner from the state had visited Israel secretly in the last 10 years and got Pegasus overseas illegally for use against the Opposition leaders here.