West Bengal forms commission to investigate Pegasus spyware issue

Amid the Pegasus spyware controversy, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that West Bengal has formed a commission to investigate the matter.

The announcement was made by Banerjee before her scheduled visit to Delhi to meet the Opposition leaders including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Briefing media persons, the chief minister said, "Through Pegasus spyware, everyone including the judiciary and civic society have been under surveillance. We expected that during the Parliament session, the Centre will investigate the matter under the Supreme Court's supervision but they did not. West Bengal is the first state to initiate a commission of inquiry."

"Under the leadership of Senior Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur and former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, we have initiated the commission. They will monitor illegal hacking, monitoring, surveillance, recording mobile phones, etc," added Banerjee.

The chief minister informed the commission has been set up under the Inquiry Act (1952). The Opposition has alleged that names of several Indian politicians, journalists, lawyers, and activists have appeared on the leaked list of potential targets for surveillance by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware.

This comes following reports published in The Wire.