A startling revelation was made by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Patali Champika Ranawaka who accused the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of breaching his data privacy by tapping into his WhatsApp conversations. He made this revelation in Parliament today (21). Ranawaka claimed that he had a feeling this was happening after he was questioned on certain points by the CID in a recent interrogation, stating that the only way the CID would have known these particular details was if they had listened in to his WhatsApp calls. “As the interrogation was going on, the detectives stated that they had listened to my conversations in 2018 and 2019. According to the Criminal Code of Procedure, an order of a Magistrate is required for investigations pertaining to telephone conversations,” Ranawaka said. He went on to say that when he questioned the detectives if they had obtained a court order to listen to his phone conversations, the response was that CID Director Prasad Ranasinghe had given permission to proceed. “This means that the CID did not have a court order, and they had breached my rights to privacy,” said Ranawake. He also added that his right to expression as a Parliamentarian has been violated. Ranawaka further inquired from the Government if the CID was using the ‘Pegasus’ App or similar technology to tap his phone. Additionally, Ranawaka went on to claim that mobile service providers were also to blame as they had infringed on his rights as a result of a potential breach of his personal phone conversations, and finally demanded that all those connected to the issue were summoned before a Parliamentary Privileges Committee. The 'Pegasus' App which was developed by Israel received global fame when world leaders accused the mobile app for breaching privacy of phone calls.