Former RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya has moved the Supreme Court urging it to revive a petition filed by him in 2019 – and later withdrawn – seeking registration of an FIR and a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe against Facebook, WhatsApp and Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group, over alleged snooping charges. In his fresh plea, Govindacharya sought a “fair, impartial and responsible investigation to ascertain the magnitude of use of Pegasus in India, and the entities responsible for the same”. He termed it “illegal surveillance” and added it “presents the biggest threat to life and personal liberty, and is in fact cyber terrorism, which is punishable under S. 66 F of the Information Technology Act, 2000”. Govindacharya had approached the top court in 2019 following revelations by WhatsApp that phones of several Indian citizens were hacked using the Pegasus software. He had also sought perjury proceedings against WhatsApp for allegedly “misleading” the court in an earlier proceeding by saying that user data is fully encrypted and no one, including WhatsApp, has the key. The application is likely to be listed for hearing by the court, which is set to take up a clutch of petitions seeking an independent probe in the snooping allegations on August 16.
