[BREAKING] Centre to constitute Committee of Experts to look into Pegasus scandal, denies all allegations before Supreme Court

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Central government has revealed that it will constitute a Committee of Experts to look into the Pegasus spyware scandal..The affidavit filed through the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology unequivocally denies any and all of the allegations made by the petitioners before the apex court."It is, however, submitted that with a view to dispel any wrong narrative spread by certain vested interests and with an object of examining the issues raised, the Union of India will constitute a Committee of Experts in the field which will go in to all aspects of the issue," the affidavit reads..It goes on to state,"A bare perusal of the captioned petition and other connected petitions makes it clear that the same are based on conjectures and surmises or on other unsubstantiated media reports or incomplete or uncorroborated material. It is submitted that the same cannot be the basis for invoking the writ jurisdiction of this Hon’ble Court.".The Centre has further averred that questions surrounding its involvement in the Pegasus scandal have already been clarified in Parliament by Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw..Though the Centre has not filed a para-wise reply to the petitions, it has prayed that the same may not be treated as having admitted the truthfulness or otherwise of any of the contents of the pleas..The Supreme Court is currently hearing a batch of petitions seeking various prayers including a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, a judicial inquiry and directions to the government to reveal details about whether it had used the Pegasus software to spy on citizens..During a previous hearing in the matter, the Court observed that while the allegations in news reports regarding the Pegasus controversy are serious in nature if true, no efforts seem to have been made by the affected persons to file criminal complaints with the police before approaching the top court..The petitions are due for hearing before the Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant later today.