After a series of revelations under the Pegasus Project that began on the 18th of July, The Wire’s office was raided today.
Siddharth Varadarajan, the founding editor of The Wire took to Twitter and said that a policeman arrived at their office with “inane inquiries.”
“‘Who’s Vinod Dua?’ ‘Who’s Swara Bhaskar?’ ‘Can I see your rent agreement?’ ‘Can I speak to Arfa?’,” these were the questions posed by the policeman to the team.
Not just another day at the office for @thewire_in after #PegasusProject
Policeman arrived today with inane inquiries. 'Who's Vinod Dua?' 'Who's Swara Bhaskar?' 'Can I see your rent agreement?' 'Can I speak to Arfa?'
Asked why he'd come: "Routine check for Aug 15"
Strange. pic.twitter.com/jk0a2dDIuS
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) July 23, 2021
And on being asked the policeman told them that he had come for a routine check-in the view of August 15.
It is highly speculated that the raid has happened following the Pegasus Project revelations.
A French media house, Forbidden Stories, and Amnesty International got access to the leaked database of over 50,000 telephone numbers which were subject to speculations of targeted surveillance by the governments of various countries through an Israel-based company, NSO’s Pegasus Spyware.
Over 17 media organizations from around the world including The Guardian are engaged in this investigative journalism project. The Wire, which has been covering the suspected surveillance in India revealed that over 300 phone numbers were targeted. Over 40 journalists, 3 major opposition leaders, and hundreds of activists and academics were allegedly targeted.