New Delhi: A Nagpur court docket on Monday sentenced former BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal to life imprisonment for espionage actions involving Pakistan’s ISI. Arrested in 2018, Agarwal was discovered responsible of leaking delicate details about the BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile developed as a part of a three way partnership between the DRDO and the navy industrial consortium NPO Mashinostroyenia of Russia. The missile might be launched from land, air, sea, and underwater platforms.
Agarwal has additionally been handed 14 years of rigorous imprisonment, and fined Rs 3,000, a report in Hindustan Occasions mentioned.
In response to a PTI report, Further Periods Court docket Choose M.V. Deshpande said in his order that Nishant Agarwal was convicted underneath the IT Act and the Official Secrets and techniques Act (OSA).
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“The court docket sentenced Agarwal to life imprisonment and RI for 14 years underneath the Official Secrets and techniques Act and fined him Rs 3,000,” mentioned Particular Public Prosecutor Jyoti Vajani.
Final April, Agarwal was reportedly granted bail by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay Excessive Court docket. LiveLaw reported on the time that the bail was granted as a result of the court docket discovered “there’s nothing to recommend that Agarwal dedicated the alleged acts with intention”.
“It’s case of the prosecution that it’s a form of honey entice,” it added.
Nishant Agarwal Leaked delicate Data To ISI
The 2018 case brought about a stir, marking the primary espionage scandal to have an effect on BrahMos Aerospace. Investigations revealed that Agarwal had been involved with suspected Pakistani intelligence operatives by way of two Fb accounts, Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan. These accounts, traced to Islamabad, had been believed to be managed by operatives of Pakistan’s intelligence company.