Sushant Singh

Surveillance

Sushant Singh’s phone was infected by Pegasus spyware in July 2021. Amnesty International’s Security Lab, in partnership with Forbidden Stories, was able to confirm the infection through a forensics analysis of the phone – the latest model running the most up-to-date version of iOS at the time that the analysis was conducted.

Who is he?

A journalist and international affairs analyst, Sushant Singh’s phone was under surveillance up until less than two weeks before the publication of the Pegasus Project.

As a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, Singh covers regional geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific region, including India’s relations with China, Pakistan and other neighboring countries. He previously worked as a journalist at Indian Express, and broke numerous stories about the Rafale deal – a major scandal in the lead up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Before becoming a journalist, Singh was a member of the Indian military and served as a UN peacekeeper. He has recently published articles and analyses about the Indian military in media outlets including The Caravan, Scroll.in and Foreign Affairs.

His work

Response

The Indian government has never confirmed or denied being a client of NSO Group. “The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology wrote in response to detailed questions sent by Forbidden Stories and its partners. NSO Group did not answer Forbidden Stories’ questions on specific targets but said it “will continue to investigate all credible claims of misuse and take appropriate action based on the results of these investigations.”