Former BrahMos engineer sentenced to life for spying
Former BrahMos engineer Nishant Agrawal sentenced to life for spying for Pakistan's ISI.
A Nagpur court on Monday sentenced Nishant Pradeepkumar Agrawal, a former engineer with the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, to life imprisonment for spying for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.
The additional sessions judge of Nagpur district court, MV Deshpande, found Agrawal guilty and convicted him under Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), for an offence punishable under Section 66 (f) of the IT Act, and various sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), 1923.
He was earlier seen as a promising professional, and honoured for his achievements, people aware of the matter said.
Agrawal will also face 14 years of rigorous imprisonment under OSA, along with a fine of ₹3,000, special public prosecutor Jyoti Vajani said. Failure to pay the fine would result in six more months of imprisonment. Both life imprisonment and the 14 years of rigorous imprisonment will continue simultaneously, she added.
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He was “honey-trapped” and revealed sensitive information on Facebook, according to the prosecution, despite strict guidelines on the use of social media by people manning sensitive positions.
Agrawal, who worked in the technical research section of BrahMos Aerospace’s missile centre in Nagpur, was arrested in 2018 in a joint operation by the military intelligence and anti-terrorism squads of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. He was suspected of leaking sensitive data about BrahMos to his alleged handler in Pakistan, leading to his arrest under stringent provisions of OSA and IPC.
BrahMos is the fastest cruise missile in the world with a speed of Mach 2.8, nearly three times the speed of sound. BrahMos variants can be launched from land, air and sea, and all three variants are in service in the Indian armed forces. India is exporting the missile to the Philippines under a $375-million deal to equip the Philippine Marines with three batteries of the missiles.
During the investigation, raids were conducted at Agrawal’s home and his cabin at the DRDO office in Dongargaon near Nagpur. Agrawal was seen as a bright spark, and was a recipient of the DRDO’s young scientist award. He relocated from DRDO, Hyderabad to Nagpur four years before his arrest. His landlord in Nagpur, Manohar Kale, at the time expressed shock at Agrawal’s alleged involvement in espionage.
The prosecution described the case as only involving “honey trap” and cyber activities aimed at luring officials into revealing sensitive information. Multiple Facebook accounts linked to Agrawal, featuring profile photos of women, were discovered during the investigation.
To be sure, in April last year, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court granted bail to Agrawal, stating that there was insufficient evidence to suggest intent in the alleged act. Justice Anil S Kilor noted that most witnesses did not provide testimony, with only six examined till then and 11 more yet to be examined. Lower court later questioned and examined rest of the witnesses before delivering the judgment on Monday.
This is the second such case coming out of Maharashtra in recent years. Last year, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) arrested Pradeep Kurulkar, a Pune-based Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist, on espionage charges. Kurulkar, who is in jail, allegedly shared sensitive details about India’s missile, drone and robotics programmes with a female Pakistan-based intelligence operative.
He is also facing charges under OSA.
It appeared that the modus operandi used to target Kurulkar was similar to the one that was used to gather information from Agarwal.
The Maharashtra ATS said it unearthed “explosive” chats between Kurulkar and a Pakistani operative. Kurulkar, 60, was director, research and development, at DRDO when he shared this information with the woman “in order to establish intimate relations with her”, said the charge sheet accessed by HT.
It went on to say that the alleged Pakistani agent created multiple fake accounts under different names to engage with Kurulkar. Two of these names were Zara Dasgupta and Juhi Arora. The same operative also set up accounts under these names on messaging apps using two different phone numbers. Both numbers started with a +44 London code. In his messages with Dasgupta, Kurulkar allegedly spoke freely about several missile programmes, including Agni, BrahMos, Akash and Astra. He was denied bail by a Pune court last December.