Former BrahMos engineer gets life sentence in India

Nishant Agarwal has been accused of leaking missile secrets to Pakistan in 2018

Nishant Agarwal, a former employee of BrahMos Aerospace, was handed a life sentence on Monday for leaking secrets to Pakistan’s intelligence services. Agarwal had been working as a senior systems engineer on the Indo-Russian defense company’s supersonic cruise missile, which can be launched from land, air, sea and under water.

Agarwal, who was employed in the technical research department at the BrahMos facility in Nagpur in western India for four years, was arrested in 2018 for leaking sensitive details related to the missiles to Islamabad. His arrest reportedly came as a shock at the time, as he had been awarded a ‘Young Scientist’ prize by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) at one point.

After his arrest, investigators revealed that the engineer had been communicating with suspected Pakistani intelligence operatives through two Facebook accounts based in Islamabad. 

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A court in Nagpur found Agarwal guilty and convicted him under Section 235 of the Criminal Code and various sections of the Official Secrets Act on Monday, according to PTI news agency. In addition to the life sentence, Agarwal will have to perform hard labor while incarcerated for the next 14 years. Notably, in April 2023, the engineer was granted bail by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court due to irregularities in the trial procedures.

India and Pakistan maintain a frosty relationship – the two nuclear-armed states have fought four wars since their independence from the UK in 1947. Ties have remained in a deep freeze since 2019, when a deadly terror attack in Pulwama, Kashmir, left 40 officers from India’s Central Reserve Police Force dead, prompting a retaliatory cross-border airstrike.

READ MORE: Indian military explains accidental missile launch into Pakistan

BrahMos Aerospace is a multinational aerospace and defense corporation which manufactures cruise missiles. Headquartered in New Delhi, it was founded in 1998 as a joint venture between India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and NPO Mashinostroyenia of Russia.

BrahMos missiles have become the mainstay of the Indian armed forces, particularly the Navy, as well as one of New Delhi’s key defense exports. Last month, the Philippines received its first consignment of the missiles as part of a $375 million deal.

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