NAGPUR: Former BrahMos scientist Nishant Agrawal, who was sentenced to life by a sessions court here on June 3 for leaking military secrets to Pakistan, worked in the missile assembly unit at Nagpur and was involved in delivery of close to 80 missiles to the armed forces during his four-year stint.
He had access to customers and delivery locations of missiles, as per Major General (retd) Achyut Deo, general manager, BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL), who deposed as a witness during Nishant's trial.
Last week, Nishant was sentenced to life imprisonment by the sessions court under the IT Act and Official Secrets Act. He was accused of passing on secret information on BrahMos missiles to Pak intelligence operatives, who contacted him on social media in the guise of girls. His defence counsel has filed an appeal in high court. TOI has access to his case papers.
Deo, however, told the court he did not come across any instance of Nishant tampering, sharing or misusing information from office computers even though his workstation had more classified information. The data allegedly found in his laptop was already in public domain, Deo told the court.
Deo said he headed the warhead integration and mechanical department and did not receive any negative report about Nishant from the Intelligence Bureau or other security agencies. Nishant was also recommended for the young scientist award in 2018.
However, NN Kumar, executive director (production) at the BrahMos unit, told the court that Nishant was not supposed to keep departmental information in his personal computer, which had a technical description of the missile - CK-310. This was highly classified information and a draft version for approval by technical specialists, he said on record.
Responding to the defence lawyer, the investigating officer of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) which arrested him in 2018, told the court that both Nishant and his wife were not inclined to Islamist ideology or involved in anti-national activity. ATS officer Pankaj Awasthi went on to say Nishant was not investigated for any assets disproportionate to his income and it's not true that he was not in possession of secret information during his training at the Hyderabad unit.