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26 Jul, 16 tweets, 6 min read
BREAKING | #PegasusProject

Two serving colonels who challenged official policy, a retired intelligence officer who took RAW to court, and two serving BSF officers figure in the Pegasus Project database as persons of interest for an unidentified agency.

thewire.in/government/ind…
Barely a month after K.K. Sharma, then head of the BSF, attended an RSS-affiliate’s event, his telephone numbers were added to the list.

It is not clear what the purpose of any potential surveillance might have been.

thewire.in/government/ind…
If the Indian agency in question was interested in studying the extent to which Sharma actually sympathised with the RSS, whatever it learned about his leanings clearly did not disqualify him from a key post-retirement assignment.

thewire.in/government/ind…
Soon after Sharma retired, the Election Commission (EC) appointed him special central police observer for the impending Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

thewire.in/government/ind…
The leaked database also shows that a BSF inspector general of police, Jagdish Maithani, was selected as a potential target for surveillance around the same time as Sharma.

thewire.in/government/ind…
Maithani has been associated with the MHA’s comprehensive integrated border management system (CIBMS) project or smart fencing where physical fencing of the border, including in the riverine areas with Bangladesh, is not possible.

thewire.in/government/ind…
Another officer who was marked for probable surveillance was Jitendra Kumar Ojha, a retired senior official from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external spy agency.

thewire.in/government/ind…
His number figures in the database as does his wife’s.

Ojha was in charge of training Indian spies at RAW’s academy in Delhi between 2013 and 2015 and also served in London.

thewire.in/government/ind…
He was eased out of the service in January 2018. Aggrieved by his premature ‘retirement’ from service, he moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in February 2018, and his matter came up the next month.

thewire.in/government/ind…
According to a news story by Praveen Swami in Firstpost, Ojha’s dismissal “had something to do with Samant Goel, an IPS officer from Punjab”.

Goel is presently the RAW chief.

thewire.in/government/ind…
The leaked database also contains the numbers of at least two Indian Army officers who took on the government on service-related matters.
thewire.in/government/ind…
Colonel Mukul Dev shot to prominence in 2017 when he sent a legal notice to the secretary of defence arguing against the government order to scrap free rations for officers who are posted in peace areas.

thewire.in/government/ind…
Colonel Amit Kumar was also from the legal division within the armed forces and selected for potential surveillance at around the same time as Dev.

Kumar was posted as a legal officer at the corps headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir.

thewire.in/government/ind…
In August 2018, a few months prior to his appearance in the database, he filed a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of 356 Army personnel against what they apprehended was an impending dilution of the Armed Forces (Special Forces) Act (AFSPA).

thewire.in/government/ind…
Kumar’s plea followed a spate of FIRs against military personnel deployed in parts of the north-east and Jammu and Kashmir where AFSPA applies.

thewire.in/government/ind…
His petition argued that the “garb of protection of human rights should not be taken as a shield to protect the persons involved in the terrorist act.”

The petition was argued pro-bono by former attorney general of India Mukul Rohatgi.

thewire.in/government/ind…

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More from @thewire_in

The Wire Profile picture
26 Jul
BREAKING | The phone number of the current chief of Bihar cricket, Rakesh Tiwary, considered close to those at the helm of cricket administration in India, has been identified in the leaked database analysed by the #PegasusProject, The Wire can confirm.

thewire.in/sport/pegasus-…
Two phone numbers used by Tiwary were selected as possible candidates for surveillance in 2018 by an unknown client of the NSO Group, as per the leaked records, about a year before he became president of the Bihar Cricket Association.

thewire.in/sport/pegasus-…
Tiwary’s rise in Indian cricket has been rapid, but at the time he was selected as a person of interest by an Indian agency that also uses Pegasus spyware, he was relatively unknown.

thewire.in/sport/pegasus-…
Read 4 tweets
The Wire Profile picture
26 Jul
BREAKING | #PegasusProject Rajeshwar Singh, a senior ED officer who led several high-profile investigations was selected as a probable target for surveillance.

Also listed was V.K. Jain, a former IAS officer who worked for Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal.

thewire.in/government/ed-…
@ArvindKejriwal Singh, a provincial police service officer (PPS) from Uttar Pradesh, has been with the ED since 2009, during which time he had served on the investigation of several sensitive cases such as the 2G spectrum scam and the Aircel-Maxis matter.

thewire.in/government/ed-…
@ArvindKejriwal A second number was listed around 2018, when two numbers registered to his wife are added, as are the numbers of his two sisters, one of whom, Abha Singh, is an IAS officer-turned-lawyer based in Mumbai.

thewire.in/government/ed-…
Read 14 tweets
The Wire Profile picture
24 Jul
BREAKING | #PegasusProject The telephone numbers of more than 60 women – homemakers, lawyers and school teachers, journalists, scientists, civil servants and even friends of politicians – figure in the leaked database of probable surveillance.

thewire.in/women/pegasus-…
Minal Gadling, the 48-year-old homemaker’s immediate concern was the extent to which her privacy could have been compromised.

“My phone is an integral part of me. I carry it everywhere, even to my bedroom,” she said. | @sukanyashantha

thewire.in/women/pegasus-…
@sukanyashantha Her husband, Surendra Gadling, was arrested in June 2018 and later arraigned in the ongoing Bhima Koregaon case.

The leaked database indicated that Gadling’s associate lawyer, Nihalsing Rathod, was marked as a probable target in early 2018.

thewire.in/women/pegasus-…
Read 9 tweets
The Wire Profile picture
24 Jul
LIVE | "We need India to understand that we know India is perpetrating terrorism against Pakistan in Pakistan and it is unacceptable," says Moeed Yusuf in conversation with Karan Thapar.

Watch the interview here:
LIVE | Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan's National Security Advisor, says reports of his meeting with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval are untrue.

Watch the interview here:
LIVE | "I would protect who made contact with Pakistan from the Indian side as that would reveal who really calls the shots in India and that's for Delhi to decide," says Moeed Yusuf to Karan Thapar.

Watch the interview here:
Read 7 tweets
The Wire Profile picture
23 Jul
BREAKING | #PegasusProject

More than 25 people from the Kashmir Valley were selected as potential targets of intrusive surveillance.

Forensic analysis revealed signs of Pegasus targeting in separatist leader Bilal Lone's phone data.

thewire.in/rights/kashmir…
Others on the leaked database include at least two members of People’s Democratic party (PDP) chief and former chief minister of J&K Mehbooba Mufti’s family.

thewire.in/rights/kashmir…
Their selection as potential targets of surveillance happened when Mufti was still CM and in a coalition with the BJP.

In fact, Mufti’s family members were chosen for potential surveillance just months before the government collapsed.

thewire.in/rights/kashmir…
Read 11 tweets
The Wire Profile picture
22 Jul
BREAKING | #PegausProject

Hours after PM Modi acted to oust Alok Verma from his post as head of the CBI at midnight on October 23, 2018, three telephone numbers registered in his name were added to a list of possible targets for surveillance.

thewire.in/government/peg…
Until his peremptory termination despite having three months of his tenure to go, Verma had enjoyed the authority to order the surveillance of suspects – under norms prescribed by law.

thewire.in/government/peg…
Along with Verma, the personal telephone numbers of his wife, daughter and son-in-law would eventually get placed on the list too, making it a total of 8 numbers from this one family. | @svaradarajan and @AjoyAshirwad report.

thewire.in/government/peg…
Read 11 tweets

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