Bengal forms panel to look into Pegasus snooping row

The West Bengal government has constituted a two-member commission to look into allegations of snooping on politicians, officials and journalists using Israeli spyware Pegasus. The decision to form a panel, with retired judges as its members, was taken at a special cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee. "We thought the Centre would form an inquiry commission or a court-monitored probe would be ordered to look into this incident. But the Centre is sitting idle... So we decided to form a ‘commission on inquiry' to look into the matter," Mamata said. The commission will be headed by former Calcutta High court Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya. Former Supreme Court judge Madan Bhimrao Lokur is its other member.