According to the latest coverage done by The Wire on the Pegasus Project, 11 numbers used by a former supreme court aide and her family and were brought to the attention of an unidentified official agency prior to possible hacking.
In April 2019, three phone numbers of Supreme Court official who indicted former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on sexual harassment charges were selected as potential surveillance targets for an unidentified Indian agent who may be a client of Israel’s NSO Group.
At the time, she was one of four senior judges who protested against CJ’s choice of baker Deepak Mishra, says The Wire report.
The employee whose name has been kept secret, was fired in December 2018, weeks after she said it had rejected the judge’s motion. She said that she had filed an affidavit on April 20, 2019, was marked as interested a few days later, and that Forbidden Stories, a French non-profit organization, analysed a list of expired phone numbers that could be accessed.
According to the leaked records, eight other phone numbers of her husband and two of her brothers were identified as being under surveillance in the same week that her charges against CJ were first filed.
A total of 11 telephone numbers associated with the applicant and her family were selected, making it one of the largest groups of connected telephone numbers in India.
Her presence on the list and the timing of his election show that she and her family were in the spotlight after the serious charges against the Chief Justice of India.
Ministry of Information and Communication’s Response
In response to a detailed inquiry by Pegasus contributors to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MEITY) characterized the alleged link “between the Indian government and Pegasus” as a “malicious accusation” and added: “Allegations of government surveillance for specific people do not have any basis or truth.
The Wire says that it was unable to conduct a forensic examination of the phone connected to the former court aide to find evidence of a hacker attack. Hence, it is impossible to determine with certainty whether or not he is indeed the target of Pegasus.
However, the fact that there are up to 11 relevant numbers on the list we have accessed raises troubling questions about confidentiality, gender equality and the integrity of the affidavit filed by the Court of Appeal.
Shortly after her complaint was lodged, the woman was brought before a specially formed internal committee in secret proceedings. If your phone has indeed been jail broken, that means the agency will have the opportunity to eavesdrop on a preferred conversation with a lawyer.
This means that the legal strategy of a woman reporting to the Chief Justice of India that she has been sexually harassed will become known to any or any agency interested in monitoring her, which puts her in a strong position only in comparison to other women. as well as the possibility of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, who oversaw several important events in which the government and the ruling party had strong political interests.
The affidavits she sent to 22 judges documented what she believed was the deliberate and constant harassment of her husband and other family
The woman’s husband and brother-in-law worked for the Delhi Police Department during the sexual assault allegations, and shortly after their release in January 2019, they were suspended as part of the revenge charges against him. He said the retaliatory campaign included prosecutions and arrests based on bogus crime reports, but was ultimately canceled due to lack of evidence.
The former Supreme Court judge then denied all charges against those involved. An internal investigation by Peak Court, which was heavily criticized for his stance and working methods, ultimately acquitted Gogoi.
Now the whole process is compromised by the possibility that he and his family were monitoring the phone on the orders of a senior official.
According to The Wire’s investigation, two of the three phone numbers used by the former court clerk were the first to be called after the complaint was filed, and the third was almost a week later.
Four of her husband’s five phone numbers were recorded a few days after the affidavit was found, and the last one a few days later. Around the same time, her husband’s two brothers were dialing the same line.
Telecommunications security experts say the first step needed for a possible hacker attack using spyware like Pegasus to “find” all 11 phone numbers should have happened at least a few months after they were targeted. how the charges were made public.
Without a forensic examination, it is impossible to determine whether an employee’s, husband’s or brother-in-law’s cell phone is actually hacked or infected with Pegasus spyware. Wire contacted the whistleblower and his family, but refused to participate in the story.
Claims and Consequences
In her affidavit, the applicant had submitted that Judge Gogoi tried to make physical contact with her in exchange for certain favors.
She also claimed that in the days after she rejected the CJI’s alleged advances, she was transferred thrice in a matter of weeks and put through onerous disciplinary proceedings that eventually caused her dismissal from the job. Her brother-in-law who was appointed from the CJI’s discretionary quota was also removed from his office without any explanation.
The woman also claimed that she was thrown from her seat three times within weeks of the CJI’s denial of the lawsuits and was eventually released after a harsh disciplinary process. The brother-in-law, appointed at the discretionary quota was also fired for no reason.
In her written statement, she submitted that shortly after the incident, her husband and one of her brothers were under investigation by the Ministry with false claims that she had been brought in by the Delhi police. Around the same time, she was accused of bribing someone he had never met, and he was later arrested. During her isolation, she confessed to being tortured by the police who followed his family after she was kicked out of CJI Logistics.
At the time, CJ Logistics denied all accusations, stating, “This is absolutely false and shameful. At a hastily convened April 20 hearing, which he presided over, Judge Gogoi said the charges against him were an attack on “judicial independence” and a “grand conspiracy” to “deactivate the CJI office.”
The Wire reports that when they met her and told her about the original story, she found herself in terrible psychological stress, just like her family. Having lost all sources of income almost simultaneously, they dared to file a formal lawsuit against CJI and Indu Malhotra.
However, it turned out that many lawyers have heard her questions in internal court hearings, which criticize the one-sided case in violation of the courts, as the applicant was not given a fair trial. The plaintiffs ultimately withdrew from the trial due to lack of intimidation and sensitivity, and the trial was conducted by S.A. He headed a committee of judges – Bobde (successor to Gogoi as CJ), Indira Banerjee and Indu Malhotra.
During the trial, she argued that the judge regarded her complaint as suspicion rather than empathy. She has also then pointed out a strange exception. Copies of the Commission’s final report that did not contain “substance” in their claims were rejected, but the report itself was submitted by the CJI, which served as the basis for the complaint.
Several months after the investigation of the case, the applicant’s husband and brother returned to their police stations in Delhi. The whistleblower was offered the position of a Supreme Court judge in January 2020, but turned it down for mental health reasons. Observers interpreted the proposed reinstatement as an implicit admission that his dismissal was wrong.
After being accused of sexual harassment, justice Gogoi served in the 46th party of CJI until November 17, 2019.
Six months after his retirement, he was appointed by the federal government of Raj Sabah as a “member of senior management,” which has been criticized by high-ranking officials in Indian legal circles.