The Trinamool Congress Government on Monday formed a two-member judicial panel to enquire into the Pegasus phone hacking case, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday. The judicial commission will comprise retired Supreme Court Judge MB Lokur and former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya.
“We are the first Government to set up a judicial commission to enquire into the phone hacking issue,” the Chief Minister said hours before she flew off to Delhi where she will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening.
“The situation is such that everyone is Nazarband (under surveillance) today,” the CM said on the Pegasus spyware row. “We thought that after the Opposition raised its voice, the Centre will order a court-headed enquiry into it.”
But when we saw they are not interested in doing anything about this, we thought that our Government must do something and so before going to Delhi I called a Cabinet meeting and set up a judicial commission to inquire into the matter, she said
“The two-member panel would comprise former Supreme Court judge M BLokur and retired Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Jyotirmoy
Bhattacharya. They will look into how the entire illegal hacking of the phones took place and how privacy of the people was breached. The Cabinet has approved the decision and minutes have been written …according to which the Commission will probe illegal hacking, tracking and recording of mobile phones in Bengal,” Mamata said.
Soon after the Chief Minister set up the judicial panel the State BJP hit back bringing counter-spying charges against the TMC Government.
State BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattachayra said, “Let this Government bring to light as to which Commissioner of Police visited Israel in the past 10 years (of TMC rule) … let them also come clean on which top police or some other officer brought the Pegasus to Bengal through backdoor … let them also make it clear as to which software the STF and CID is using for snooping or did any senior police officer contact
Pegasus or any other spyware company to crack e-mails and WhatsApp messages … let them also explain why the State ministers and the media men talk among themselves via WhatsApp.”
BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya also attacked the Chief Minister saying, “Why are we even surprised that Mamata Banerjee has constituted a judicial commission to investigate bogus Pegasus Project? Her priorities have always been warped. If only she had shown such alacrity to probe post-poll violence and investigate several Covid scams in Bengal!”
The Monday’s development takes place days after the Chief Minister lambasted the BJP Government for using the Israeli spyware for snooping and appealed to the Supreme Court to “please take suo motu cognizance of the matter as no one in the society from judges to politicians to journalists to officials are being spared.”