Ex-SC judge Arun Mishra’s old number, court officials on Pegasus snoop target list: report

A Rajasthan-based cellphone number that was earlier registered in former Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Mishra’s name was added to the list of potential targets of an alleged surveillance operation using the Pegasus spyware in 2019, The Wire reported on Wednesday.

While Justice Mishra was a sitting SC Judge at that time — he retired on September 3, 2020 — the report quoted him as saying that he had surrendered the cellphone number “on April 21, 2014”.

“The number +9194XXXXXXX is not with me since 2013-2014. I don’t use this number,” Justice Mishra, who is now the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairperson, told The Wire. According to the report, Justice Mishra said he had “surrendered the number on April 21, 2014”.