NEW DELHI, The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition by the Uttar Pradesh Police challenging the Bombay High Court ruling acquitting Brahmos aeronautical engineer Nishant Agarwal of espionage and Official Secrets Act charges.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva issued notice on a plea by the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad challenging the Supreme Court’s December 1 last year order that acquitted Agarwal of the main charges.
“Issuance of notice may be returned on August 31, 2026,” the court said in its order dated July 13.
The case, which was initially filed by the Uttar Pradesh ATS court and was heard in Lucknow, was later transferred to Nagpur as it was considered the site of the alleged crime. Agarwal has been granted bail in the case in 2023.
However, the Supreme Court found that Agarwal illegally stored sensitive data.
Aggrieved by the Supreme Court order, the UP government approached the Supreme Court challenging it.
On June 3, 2024, the Nagpur District Court sentenced Agarwal to life imprisonment under the Official Secrets Act for spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
Agarwal was also fined $3000.
The court convicted Agarwal under Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for committing an offense punishable under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act and various sections of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
Agarwal, who works in the technical research department of the company’s missile center in Nagpur, was arrested in a joint operation by military intelligence and anti-terrorism teams in UP and Maharashtra in 2018.
The former aerospace engineer of BrahMos has been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the stringent OSA regime.
Agarwal worked at the BrahMos facility for four years and was accused of leaking sensitive technical information to the ISI.
Section 3 of the Safety Oversight Act states that “Punishments for espionage: If any person for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State… approaches, searches, passes over, near or enters any prohibited place… and obtains, collects, records, publishes or communicates to any other person any secret official code or password, or any diagram, plan, model, article, memorandum or other document or information which is calculated or may be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to the enemy or relating to a matter which is likely to be The disclosure thereof affects the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State or friendly relations with foreign States; the offense shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend, in the case of any defence, arsenal, establishment or station of the naval, military or air forces, mine, minefield, factory, shipyard, camp, ship or aircraft, or otherwise in connection with the affairs of the naval, military or air forces of the Government or in connection with any secret official law, for a period of fourteen years, and in other cases to three years.”
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint project between the Defense Research and Development Organization and the Russian Military Industrial Union.
Agarwal was granted bail by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court in April 2023.
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