Former BrahMos engineer sentenced to life imprisonment

Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], June 3 : Nagpur District Court sentenced Nishant Agarwal, former engineer of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, arrested in 2018 for spying for Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI, to life imprisonment under sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and imposed a fine of Rs 3000.
Additional sessions court judge MV Deshpande specified that Agarwal was found guilty under section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
On Monday, the court ruled that Agarwal will serve a life sentence for offences under Section 66F of the IT Act. Additionally, he was sentenced to fourteen years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 3(1)(c) of the Official Secrets Act and three years of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 3,000. In default of payment, he will serve six months of simple imprisonment under Sections 5(1)(a)(b)(c)(d) and 5(3) of the Official Secrets Act. All sentences will run concurrently, according to the court order.
Agarwal worked in the technical research section of BrahMos Aerospace's missile centre in Nagpur. He was arrested in 2018 during a joint operation by the military intelligence and Anti-terrorism squads of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The former engineer faced charges under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the stringent Official Secrets Act.
He was accused of leaking sensitive technical information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Agarwal had been employed at the BrahMos facility for four years.
BrahMos Aerospace is a collaborative venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.
Last April, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court granted bail to Agarwal.