Ex-BrahMos Engineer Nishant Agarwal, Who Spied For Pakistan's ISI, Gets Life In Jail

Nishant Agarwal convicted under IT Act and Official Secrets Act. The 2018 case caused a stir, marking the first espionage scandal to affect BrahMos Aerospace.

Life imprisonment to ex-BrahMos engineer Nishant Agarwal.

Source : PTI

New Delhi: A Nagpur court on Monday sentenced former BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal to life imprisonment for espionage activities involving Pakistan's ISI. Arrested in 2018, Agarwal was found guilty of leaking sensitive information about the BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile developed as part of a joint venture between the DRDO and the military industrial consortium NPO Mashinostroyenia of Russia. The missile can be launched from land, air, sea, and underwater platforms.

Agarwal has also been handed 14 years of rigorous imprisonment, and fined Rs 3,000, a report in Hindustan Times said.

According to a PTI report, Additional Sessions Court Judge M.V. Deshpande stated in his order that Nishant Agarwal was convicted under the IT Act and the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

"The court sentenced Agarwal to life imprisonment and RI for 14 years under the Official Secrets Act and fined him Rs 3,000," said Special Public Prosecutor Jyoti Vajani.

Last April, Agarwal was reportedly granted bail by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. LiveLaw reported at the time that the bail was granted because the court found "there is nothing to suggest that Agarwal committed the alleged acts with intention".

“It is case of the prosecution that it is a sort of honey trap," it added.

Nishant Agarwal Leaked sensitive Info To ISI

The 2018 case caused a stir, marking the first espionage scandal to affect BrahMos Aerospace. Investigations revealed that Agarwal had been in contact with suspected Pakistani intelligence operatives through two Facebook accounts, Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan. These accounts, traced to Islamabad, were believed to be managed by operatives of Pakistan's intelligence agency.

NDTV reported that, Agarwal, who had worked at the BrahMos facility for four years, was accused of leaking sensitive technical information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).