Nishant Agarwal, a former engineer at BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday by the Nagpur district court for spying for Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency in violation of the Official Secrets Act.
Agarwal was also fined ₹ 3,000 and sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI).
Agarwal was found guilty under section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code for an offense punishable under section 66(f) of the IT Act and several sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), according to the order issued by Additional Sessions Court Judge MV Deshpande.
Under the Official Secrets Act, “the court sentenced Agarwal to life imprisonment and RI for 14 years and fined him ₹ 3,000,” stated Jyoti Vajani, Special Public Prosecutor.
Agarwal worked for the company in the technical research department of its missile center in Nagpur. In 2018, the military intelligence and anti-terrorism squads (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra jointly conducted an operation that resulted in Garwal’s arrest.
The former BrahMos Aerospace engineer was charged with multiple offenses under the strict OSA and the Indian Penal Code.
He was accused of providing Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with sensitive technical information while he was employed at the Brahmos facility for four years.
The Russian military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) and the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) jointly own BrahMos Aerospace.
