Mumbai: Nearly six years after he was caught passing on strategic and sensitive information to Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a court in Nagpur on Monday awarded life imprisonment to Nishant Agarwal, a former junior scientist, who worked for the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd.
Agarwal, then in his twenties, was accused of leaking technical information about the supersonic BrahMos missile, which is a collaborative project of India and Russia.
In October 2018, he was arrested by a team of Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Uttar Pradesh police and Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad.
He was found leaking information of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to the ISI.
Additional Sessions Judge M V Deshpande convicted under section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code for an offence punishable under section 66 (f) of the Information Technology Act and various sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
Agarwal was awarded life imprisonment in one offence, rigorous imprisonment of 14 years in another offence and a fine of Rs 3,000.
Agarwal, employed in the technical research section of the BrahMos Aerospace’s Wardha Road facility.
Agarwal was in touch with and catering to Pakistani intelligence via two fake Facebook accounts in the names of ‘Pooja Rajan’ and ‘Neha Sharma’. These accounts, created in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, are reportedly operated by the Pakistan’s ISI and Agrawal was found chatting with them. The UP police monitored these accounts and he was trapped.
Agarwal hails from Roorkee in Uttarakhand.
The winner of the Young Scientist award by the DRDO, had studied at the National Institute of Technology in Kurukshetra.
Published 03 June 2024, 11:29 IST