BENGAL SETS UP JUDICIAL PANEL TO PROBE PEGASUS ESPIONAGE ALLEGATIONS

The state government of West Bengal has formed a commission to investigate the Pegasus espionage row. The announcement was made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before leaving for Delhi on Monday. The commission of inquiry consists of retired Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya and retired Supreme Court Justice MB Lokur.

“We have formed a commission of inquiry into the phone eavesdropping incident,” Mamata told a news conference on Monday. The decision was taken at the cabinet meeting. The commission has been constituted under the Inquiry Act (1952), and has asked to submit a report within six months. Modi.

This comes days after Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Trinamool MP and party General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee appeared on a list of potential surveillance targets.

“We thought the centre would form an inquiry commission, or a court-monitored probe would be ordered to look into this phone-hacking incident. But the centre is sitting idle… so we decided to form a ‘commission on inquiry’’ to look into the matter,” Banerjee said shortly before she left for Delhi.

Under the Commission of Inquiry Act, both the Centre and states can institute a probe.

However, if the central government has ordered such an inquiry, “no state government shall, except with the approval of the central government, appoint another commission to inquire into the same matter for so long as the commission appointed by the central government is functioning,” the Act says.

It also says that if a state government has ordered an inquiry, “the central government shall not appoint another commission to inquire into the same matter for so long as the commission appointed by the state government is functioning unless the central government is of opinion that the scope of the inquiry should be extended to two or more states”.

Mamata Banerjee’s move is likely to be seen as an attempt by her to force the Centre’s hand to order a wider probe as the potential targets in the list include people from several states.

Mamata Banerjee called the Israeli military-grade spyware “dangerous” and “ferocious”, and said she could not even talk to other opposition leaders, as she feared her phone too had been tapped.

In a scathing attack she said, “Mr Modi, don’t mind. I am not attacking you personally. But you, and maybe the Home Minister, you are deploying agencies against opposition leaders.”