HC overturns life term of BrahMos engineer, arrested for spying for Pak, orders immediate release

Agarwal, 28, was arrested in 2018 in a joint operation by the Anti-Terrorism Squads of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and Military Intelligence for allegedly spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and leaking sensitive information related to the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile project

NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday set aside the life sentence awarded to BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal, reducing his punishment to three years’ imprisonment, a period he has already served, and ordering his immediate release.

HC overturns life term of BrahMos engineer, arrested for spying for Pak, orders immediate release

Agarwal, 28, was arrested in 2018 in a joint operation by the Anti-Terrorism Squads of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and Military Intelligence for allegedly spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and leaking sensitive information related to the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile project.

In June this year, a Nagpur district court had convicted him under multiple provisions of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and the IT Act, sentencing him to life imprisonment, 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment, and a fine of ₹3,000. The court had held that he had passed classified material to operatives of an enemy nation.

Agarwal challenged the verdict before the high court. After hearing the matter, a division bench of justices Anil Kilor and Pravin Patil acquitted him of all major espionage-related charges, ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish the allegations of spying.

The bench upheld only one charge, unauthorised possession of official documents on his personal device, for which the lower court had imposed a three-year sentence. As Agarwal had already spent more than this duration in custody, the high court directed that he be released immediately.

Agarwal, a resident of Nehrunagar in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, had worked for four years as a system engineer in the technical research division of BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture under the DRDO. Investigators had recovered classified material related to the missile system from his personal computer at his rented accommodation in Ujwal Nagar, Nagpur, triggering widespread concern over a potential security breach.