Nihalsing Rathod/Facebook Nihalsing Rathod

NAGPUR/NEW DELHI — Lawyers defending the human rights activists arrested under the controversial Bhima Koregaon case have confirmed that their phones were targeted by Pegasus, a controversial WhatsApp snooping software developed by Israeli company NSO Group. The NSO Group has maintained that the Pegasus software is only sold to government agencies around the world. Pegasus garnered international attention in 2018 when a spate of lawsuits against NSO alleged that the company’s software was used to target journalists and activists across the world, including journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered on the premises of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul, Turkey. The revelation that Indian security agencies are spying on citizens without any warrants or oversight is significant in itself, but the use of Pegasus in the Bhima Koregaon case is particularly troubling as much of the evidence produced by the security agencies pertains to files ostensibly obtained from the computers and phones of the accused, who have been charged with waging war against the state. For the latest news and more, follow HuffPost India on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our newsletter. In June 2018, the Pune police launched a series of country-wide raids targeted at lawyers and human rights defenders involved in fighting politically-charged legal cases involving Dalit issues, adivasi rights, and those accused of supporting the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and their supporters in the Indian media, quickly leveraged the raids to raise the bogey of “Urban Naxals” in an attempt to silence anyone criticising the ruling party. Naxal is another term used to describe Maoist cadres. In court, the Pune police produced ostensibly incriminating correspondence that they claimed was drawn from the computers of these activists. Now, lawyers representing the accused say the Pegasus hack proves that this correspondence was planted on their computers. (Here’s our complete coverage of the Bhima-Koregaon case.) “We have consistently been saying that many of the so-called ‘letters’ obtained by the police have been planted on the hard-drives of activists,” said Nagpur-based lawyer Nihalsingh Rathod, who represents several of the accused including celebrated Dalit lawyer Surendra Gadling. “Now it is clear just how they planted these files on Mr. Gadling’s computer.” Rathod worked closely with Gadling as his junior associate at the time Gadling was arrested. Since Gadling’s arrest, Rathod has taken up his case. Rathod told HuffPost India he learnt he was a target when he was contacted by a researcher from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab on October 7 2019. “The researcher told me that he suspected that my phone had been targeted by malware and compromised,” Rathod told HuffPost India. “The researcher didn’t tell me that the malware was sold exclusively to national governments, and so I did not suspect that the Indian government was behind the attack.”

Screenshot Screenshot of message received by Nihalsingh Rathod.

Screenshot Bhima Koregaon Lawyers Were Targeted In WhatsApp Spyware Scandal

Soon after his call with Citizen Lab, Rathod received a generic message from WhatsApp’s business account stating, “In May we stopped an attack where an advanced cyber actor exploited our video calling to install malware on user devices. There is a possibility this phone was impacted, and we want to make sure you know how to keep your mobile secure.” The message instructed Rathod to upgrade to the latest version of WhatsApp and to keep his phone’s operating system up to date. “I thought this was a routine malware problem, so I did not pay much attention,” Rathod said.

Nihalsing Rathod/Facebook Bhima Koregaon Lawyers Were Targeted In WhatsApp Spyware Scandal

On October 29, Facebook — which owns WhatsApp — filed a lawsuit against the NSO Group, alleging that NSO’s Pegasus software had been used to target over 1,400 WhatsApp users around the globe. Then, on October 31 2019, The Indian Express reported that Indian journalists and Dalit activists were amongst those targeted.“When I read the Express article, I was shocked to learn the software had only been licensed to government agencies,” Rathod said. “Before his arrest, similar things happened to Surendra Gadling’s phone and computer. He asked me about it. I thought it was just spam.” Rathod said he was now planning legal action against the Indian state. “We have always maintained that the letters police claim to have found on Gadling’s computer were planted,” Rathod said. “As defenders of human rights and the constitution, we feel helpless and hopeless.”