A former engineer from the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited, was sentence to life imprisonment, Nishant Agarwal by the Nagpur District Court on June 3, 2024. This sentence is under the Official Secrets Act for his involvement in spying for Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Agarwal was sentenced to fourteen years of rigorous imprisonment and Rs 3000.
BrahMos Aerospace a key player in India’s defence sector and working in partnership with a Russian company is instrumental in building India’ s supersonic cruise missiles with the capability of launching from land, sea and air.
Additional Sessions Court Judge MV Deshpande specified that Agarwal was found guilty under Section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc). This was for offenses punishable under the Section 66(F) of the IT Act and various sections of the Official Secret’s Act. “The court sentenced Agarwal to life imprisonment and RI for 14 years stated Special Public Prosecutor Jyoti Vajani.
Nishant Agarwal, using the social media platform Facebook shared sensitive information about the supersonic missile technology to Pakistan based handlers of the ISI. The communication was done though Facebook named Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan, the investigation agencies. The agencies informed that Nishant Agarwal became an easy target due to his casual approach and reckless attitude. He allowed himself to be influenced by the Pakistani handlers and shared sensitive information about the BrahMos missile.
Agarwal worked in the technical research station of the BrahMos Missile station in Nagpur. He was arrested in 2018 during a joint operation by the military intelligence and the Anti-Terror Squads of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The former engineer faced charges under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and stringent Official Secrets Act.
He was accused of leaking sensitive technical information to Pakistan’s ISI. Agarwal had been employed at the BrahMos facility for four years. BrahMos Aerospace is collaborative venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia. Last year, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court granted bail to Agarwal.
The revelation that Nishant Kumar shared sensitive information with the Pakistani spy agency was particularly shocking for his colleagues as they said that he was a hardworking talented employee and the DRDO awarded him the Young Scientist Award for his crucial contributions to developing various technologies. He completed his graduation from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Kurukshetra and was known as a bright engineer.
Pakistani intelligence agency is increasingly targeting Indian officials and security personnel on social media to extract sensitive information about India’s defence programs and recently a sharp uptick has been observed in such cases.
