EX-BRAHMOS Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal had copied 19 confidential files from the BrahMos facility, with file number 11 being classified as top secret.This file contained vital information about a critical component used in Russian missiles. This information emerged during a hearing on the suspension of Agrawal’s sentence and his potential bail. Agrawal was convicted for leaking official secrets to Pakistani intelligence operatives and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Justice Vinay Joshi and JusticeVrushali Joshi at the High Court here heard the final arguments in the case on Wednesday.

 

The court has reserved the judgement. Agrawal was sentenced to life imprisonment by Additional Sessions Judge-1 M V Deshpande for espionage on behalf of Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence (ISI) on June 3 of this year. He was arrested in 2018 in Nagpur on charges of leaking information about the BrahMos missile to the ISI. At the time, he was a senior system engineer at BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between DRDO andRussia’s Military Industrial Consortium (NPOMashinostroyenia), whichfocuses on India’s supersoniccruise missile capable of beinglaunched from land, air, sea, and underwater platforms. During the arguments, AdvAnup Badar, representing theState, informed the court that Agrawal had copied a topsecret file about a critical component of the missile developed by Russia. This information could potentially helpanti-Indian governmentscounter the missile. After copying the file fromthe computers, Agrawal storedit on a laptop, which was laterseized from his residence. Adv Badar informed thecourt that during searches, thepolice had seized a laptop a pendrive, a Nokia phone, and hard disks.

 

The prosecution has also recorded statements from senior officials, including the Chief General Manager of HR (Retd.) and the former Director of BrahMos Hyderabad. According to the prosecution, Agrawal was in contact with a Facebook account under the name Shejal Kapoor. The police have obtained the IP address of this account and phone numbers associated with it. The account was created in Pakistan and was operated by an ISI spy. The defense counsel, Senior Adv Siddhartha Dave, argued that the information was not stored on Agrawal’s laptop and challenged the prosecution’s claims. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court has closed the matter for judgement.