Bombay High Court denies bail to BRAHMOS engineer convicted for leaking information to Pakistan

The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court recently denied bail to Nishant Agrawal, a former engineer at BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, convicted for spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI and leaking sensitive information related to BRAHMOS missiles [Nishant Agrawal v. Anti Terrorist Squad, Lucknow]. .The Court also rejected the plea to suspend the sentence of Agrawal, Senior System Engineer, who was convicted by the trial court and sentenced to life in prison. In its order of August 23, the Bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Vrushali V Joshi stated that the question of national safety and security is far more serious than cases of gruesome murder.“The issue largely relates to security and safety of the country, which has to be seriously viewed. The impact of crime may pose a serious threat to the National security. In our view, when the question of National security and safety arises, it is quite serious than the cases of gruesome murder. In the circumstances, we are not prepared to take a risk to put the National security and safety at risk,” the Court said. .Agrawal was employed in the technical research section of BrahMos’ missile centre at Nagpur. He was arrested in 2018 in a joint operation by the Military Intelligence and the Anti-Terrorism Squads (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra after he was booked for offences under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act (IT Act).Sessions judge MV Deshpande convicted him on June 3 and sentenced him to life imprisonment..The accused moved the High Court for suspension of his sentence, claiming he unintentionally downloaded malware while searching for a job. He contended that there was no evidence of unauthorized transmission of sensitive data, emphasizing the lack of external devices that could have facilitated such a breach. However, the prosecution presented compelling evidence during the trial, highlighting that the accused had access to classified information, with 19 secret files concerning BRAHMOS missile systems discovered on his personal laptop. Of these, 16 files were labeled as “secret” and 3 as “restricted.”.The prosecution revealed that the accused had communicated with social media accounts linked to Islamabad in Pakistan, raising significant concerns about potential threats to national security. Evidence showed that he had accepted a friend request from a Facebook account created in Pakistan and engaged in conversations with an individual named Sejal Kapoor without verifying her identity. The Court found that he shared personal information and uploaded links containing classified data to his laptop, which was vulnerable to malware. The forensic report indicated that the links installed on his laptop were capable of sharing sensitive information with external servers..“We have gone through the entire material and considered the rival submissions... It is prima facie evident that the accused has copied the secret information/files onto his personal laptop /files in his personal laptop. It has come on record, rather not disputed, that he has accepted the friend request on Facebook, which was created in Pakistan,” the Court said.It further noted that the accused had received training on maintaining confidentiality and had signed an undertaking to protect classified information..The Court found it inappropriate to suspend the sentence, asserting that the seriousness of the crime warranted the decision. "Taking an overall view of the matter, certainly this is not a case to form a prima facie opinion that the accused has fair chances of success in appeal,” the order stated. .Senior Advocate S Dave along with advocate CB Barve appeared for the convicted engineer. Additional Public Prosecutor AB Badar appeared for the State. .[Read Order]