Sunday , November 17 2024

Nagpur court sentences scientist Nishant Agarwal to life imprisonment in BrahMos missile espionage case

Nagpur, June 03 (HS). A Nagpur court on Monday sentenced scientist Nishant Agarwal, who spied on Brahmos missile technology, to life imprisonment. Nishant Agarwal, who spied for Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, was arrested from Ujjwalnagar area of ​​Nagpur in 2018.

Scientist Nishant Agarwal was a resident of Roorkee in Uttarakhand. Nishant studied engineering from NIT, Kurukshetra. Nishant, who was brilliant in studies, got a job in the Brahmos missile unit in Nagpur in 2014. He led a team of 40 people in the hydraulic-pneumatics and warhead integration department of the Brahmos missile unit. The unit also awarded Nishant the Young Scientist Award in 2017-18. Nishant was also a member of the CSR, R & D group of Brahmos. At the time of arrest, Nishant Agarwal was overseeing the projects of Brahmos Nagpur and Pilani sites. Nishant lived on rent at Manohar Kale's place in Basti Ujjwalnagar near Nagpur airport.

Meanwhile, Nishant got trapped in Pakistan's honeytrap and started spying for Pakistan. The Uttar Pradesh Police Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had detained an ISI agent in early 2018. During interrogation, Nishant Agarwal's name came up. This information was given to Military Intelligence. After this, the teams of UP ATS and Military Intelligence started gathering information about Nishant Agarwal. Nishant was sharing information about DRDO and Brahmos missile with Pakistani female friends on Facebook. This information was being passed on from ISI to the US intelligence agency CIA.

After getting information about Nishant, Uttar Pradesh ATS, Maharashtra ATS and Military Intelligence jointly raided Nishant's house in Nagpur. His ancestral house in Roorkee was also raided. The investigating agencies had found information and documents related to missile technology in the laptop seized from Nishant. The joint teams searched Nishant's house in Roorkee, Brahmos' Nagpur unit and his house in Nagpur.

Nishant's Facebook account revealed that two suspicious Facebook accounts named Pooja Ranjhak and Neha Sharma were in Nishant's friend list. Both these accounts were operated from Pakistan. After this Nishant was arrested. The case was going on in the court of Nagpur District Judge No. 1 Deshpande in this case. The court had also granted bail to Nishant in March 2023. Today, the court accepted the allegations and arguments made by Special Public Prosecutor Jyoti Vajani with evidence and sentenced Nishant Agarwal to life imprisonment.