In a shocking security breach, the Uttar Pradesh Police and Maharashtra’s Anti-Terror Squad have arrested one person named Nishant Agarwal working at Brahmos Aerospace unit in Nagpur in a joint operation, on the accusation of sharing technical details with Pakistan’s notorious intelligence agency ISI and other US agencies. He has been booked under the Officials Secret Act.
Nagpur Brahmos Unit is a Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) facility which makes propellents, or fuel, for the Brahmos missile. The BrahMos is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land. It is the fastest cruise missile in the world.
Accused Nishant Agarwal was working at this facility from last 4 years. Police claim that Agarwal had access to sensitive information about India’s missile systems. The accused has been alleged to have been passing this sensitive and classified information to Pakistan as well as the US agencies. A team had been monitoring his moves since Saturday night and the suspect was finally arrested on Monday, said sources. The local police were unaware of the presence of the suspect in the region and the ATS carried out their operation without taking them into confidence, fearing sabotage. ATS is now investigating the extent of information leaked and the involvement of other groups in routing the procured information to the ISI and other agencies.
IG of ATS Aseem Arun said, “Very sensitive information was found on his personal computer. We also found evidence of him chatting on Facebook with Pakistan-based operators.”
Last month, a similar case of espionage was outed by the Uttar Pradesh ATS squad. The suspect was a BSF jawan and was accused of sharing crucial information with his ISI handlers. Achutanand Misra, a resident of Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district, was “honey-trapped” by a woman claiming to be a journalist into sharing information about unit operational details, police academy and training centre. Earlier this year, Ramesh, who worked as a cook at an Indian diplomat’s house was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir military Intelligence Unit and the Uttar Pradesh police from Pithoragarh for bugging the house and passing off the information to the ISI. In March 2017, Aftab Ali was arrested for being involved in running an espionage racket in Uttar Pradesh. The report also stated that he had received training in Pakistan from ISI and was in regular touch with the Pakistan High Commision officials.
