Bank accounts of BrahMos engineer Nishant Agarwal, arrested for spying, to be probed

Pic Courtesy: ANI

BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal, who has been arrested on charges of spying, was on Tuesday sent from police custody to judicial custody. According to news agency ANI, the bank accounts of the engineer are being investigated.

Agarwal was arrested earlier this month in a joint operation by the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) units of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, following which the UP ATS was granted his transit remand.

Nishant Agarwal was taken from Nagpur to Lucknow, where he was interrogated. He was in touch with suspected Pakistani intelligence operatives through two Facebook accounts with names – Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan.

These accounts, based out of Islamabad, are believed to be run by Pakistan's intelligence operatives, the ATS officer said.

Such fake accounts are reportedly used to approach senior officials in India and Agrawal too was approached by those operating these two Facebook accounts, the IO told the court.

Agrawal was arrested from BrahMos' Wardha Road facility for allegedly leaking "technical information" to Pakistan.

BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the 'Military Industrial Consortium' (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.

Agrawal, despite being engaged in "highly sensitive work", was "casual" on the internet and made himself an "easy target", the ATS officer said. He said Agrawal was active on LinkedIn also.

Top classified information had been loaded on the accused's personal laptop, the officer said.

The engineer has been charged under sections 3,4, 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, sections 419,420, 467, 468, 120 (B) and 121 (A) of the Indian Penal Code as well as 66 (B) of the Information Technology Act.

Nishant Agrawal's father Pradip Agrawal said he did not believe that his son was guilty and has faith in the judiciary.

"I don't think he is guilty. But if he is found guilty and system proves that he is guilty, then yes he is guilty," Pradip Agrawal said on his son's arrest.