Nishant Agarwal, BrahMos engineer who was arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), admitted that he had secretly downloaded some data related to the supersonic missile. He said that he copied the data from a senior’s computer when he was training at the organisation, anti-terrorism squad revealed.
The FIR against Nishant Agarwal stated that he had downloaded the data some four years ago without the knowledge of the senior at the BrahMos Aerospace’s Hyderabad facility. Agarwal was a trainee at the facility.
Earlier, the anti-terror squad had alleged that Agarwal was in touch with Pakistani intelligence operatives through two fake social media profiles running under the names ‘Neha Sharma’ and ‘Pooja Ranjan’. Aggarwal had allegedly been sharing sensitive information about the research unit of Defence Research and Development Organisation facility in Nagpur.
He was arrested on Monday, October 8, on the charges of spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency. He had allegedly been sharing sensitive information related to the BrahMos missile with Pakistani officials. As per the reports, Agarwal had also been leaking information to the United States.
The anti-terror squad told a court that despite being in a “highly sensitive work”, Aggarwal’s “casual” attitude on the internet made him an “easy target” of the ISI. “We have found a certain secret and ultra-sensitive information on his personal computer. It should not been there on his personal laptop. It violates the provisions of the OSA, and hence he has been arrested,” the statement added.
Aggarwal, who had been working for the last four years in the BAPL, was nabbed in a joint operation of Uttar Pradesh Police and Maharashtra Police.
