Lawyers of high profile cases too among new list

A day before the Supreme Court is set to hear the Pegasus phone tapping case, a new list of phone numbers were out on Wednesday, including the old phone numbers in the name of former Supreme Court Judge Arun Mishra, Registrars of Supreme Court, and lawyers of the many high-profile accused.

As per the report published by The Wire portal, Justice Arun Mishra, who is currently National Human Rights Commission Chairperson, confirmed that the number was with him during 2013-2014 and he is not using the number now.

“The presence on the list of a number associated with a sitting judge was mentioned on the day The Wire began running its stories. Having now spoken to him on the record, we can confirm that 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. A confidential source with access to BSNL records said that the number in question was registered in the name of Justice Mishra from September 18, 2010, to September 19, 2018,” the report said. 

The Wire further reported that Justice Mishra said, “The number +9194XXXXXXX is not with me since 2013-2014. I don’t use this number.”

Phone numbers of NK Gandhi and TI Rajput, who worked in the crucial “writ” section of the SC’s registry were also  in the list of targets by the Pegasus Spyware. The numbers of two junior court employees, Tapan Kumar Chakraborty and Manav Sharma, who were dismissed from service by then CJI Ranjan Gogoi “for tampering with an order” in a contempt of court case against Anil Ambani of the Reliance ADAG group, were also on the list.

Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s junior lawyer M Thangathurai’s phone number was also on the list of targets for tapping. Thangathurai and Rohatgi both expressed surprise when informed by The Wire about the number’s inclusion.

Phone numbers of lawyers of Christian Michel, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi also figured in the Pegasus tapping list.