Pegasus case: Snooping charges serious if reports are true, says top court

Asks petitioners to serve pleas to govt; next hearing on August 10

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday noted that the allegations of snooping through the use of Pegasus spyware were serious if the reports were indeed correct, even as former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reiterated that the surveillance and snooping allegations were baseless.

In a virtual press conference at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s headquarters in New Delhi, the senior party leader said: “There is no prima facie evidence. Just before the onset of the parliamentary session, a campaign orchestrated by many of the elements hostile to the present government comes out.”

Meanwhile, the SC Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) N