Guwahati: Only two people who have been impacted by the Pegasus spyware have agreed to hand over their phones to the SC-appointed technical committee investigating the problem, requiring the panel to extend the deadline for affected people to appear before it.
The Supreme Court-appointed technical committee has extended the deadline for users to come forward and contact the panel if they fear their devices have been affected by the Pegasus malware until February 8.
The development comes in the wake of new charges surrounding the Pegasus spyware scandal.
According to national media reports, last Saturday it was revealed that India purchased Pegasus spyware as part of a 2 billion defence deal with Israel in 2017, which sparked a massive uproar, with the opposition accusing the government of illegal snooping that amounted to “treason.”
According to a public notice published in leading dailies on Thursday, only two people have produced their mobile equipment for taking digital photos in response to the SC-appointed panel’s original appeal to the public in January.
“As a result, the technical committee once again requests those who have reasonable grounds to believe their mobile instrument is infected with Pegasus spyware to come forward and contact the technical committee by email on or before February 8, 2022, with reasons as to why they believe their mobile instrument may have been infected with Pegasus malware…,” it said.
The prior announcement from last month said that the deadline would be January 7, 2022.