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New Delhi: Minutes after AltNews Co-founder Mohammed Zubair secured bail from Supreme Court in all cases registered against him, Twitter users welcomed the journalist back and hashtags #MohammedZubair and #WelcomeBack were soon trending on the micro-blogging site.

User trolled right-wing activists and journalists who had called for Zubair’s arrest and were opposing bail to the fact-checker.

Senior Editor of The Wire, Arfa Khanum tweeted and called Zubair a hero while another reputed journalist Rajdeep Sardesai said the Court’s order is a strong message for cops and their political masters.

Several other journalists, activists, and users also took to their respective handles and welcomed back Zubair.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court granted bail to Zubair in all the cases registered over his 2018 tweet. The SC also refused the prosecution’s plea to restrict Zubair from tweeting.

In what came as a surprise to the right-wing fringe elements, the SC also clubbed and transferred UP Police’s FIRs to Delhi and disbanded the UP SIT set up to probe the matter. It also ordered his release before 6 pm on Wednesday subject to Zubair furnishing Rs. 20,000 bail bonds.

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New Delhi, Dec 22: Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala on Sunday claimed that the Pegasus spyware case verdict in the US proved how 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted and asked if the Supreme Court would now conduct a further inquiry in view of the judgment.

Surjewala shared a media report which said that, for the first time, a court in the US had held Israel's NSO Group liable for its intrusive spyware Pegasus.

"The Pegasus spyware case verdict proves how 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted in the illegal spyware racket," Surjewala said in a post on X.

He said it was time for the Narendra Modi government to answer who the 300 names targeted were.

"Who are the two Union ministers? Who are the three opposition leaders? Who is the constitutional authority? Who are the journalists? Who are the business persons? What information was retrieved by the BJP government and agencies? How was it used - misused and to what consequence?" the Congress leader asked.

He also questioned if appropriate criminal cases would now be lodged against the political executive or officers in the present government and the company owning NSO.

"Will the Supreme Court take note of the judgment of the US court in Meta v/s NSO? Will the Supreme Court proceed to make public the report of the Committee of Technical Experts on Pegasus Spyware, submitted to it in 2021-22?" Surjewala said.

Questioning if the Supreme Court would now conduct a further inquiry in view of the judgment affirming the targeting of 1,400 WhatsApp numbers, including 300 from India, he asked, "Will the Supreme Court now ask Meta to submit to itself the 300 names to meet the ends of justice in the Pegasus case?"

"Shouldn't Facebook (now Meta) now have responsibility to release the names of 300 Indians targeted by Pegasus, considering WhatsApp and Facebook have the biggest subscriber base in India and they have 'duty of care and disclosure' to its clients in India?" the Congress leader asked.

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