Pak ISI mole in BrahMos held

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Pak ISI mole in BrahMos held

Tuesday, 09 October 2018 | TN RAGHUNATHA | Mumbai

Pak ISI mole in BrahMos held

Honey-trapped engineer used to pass info to fake FB IDs 

A system engineer working with the Nagpur-based missile research centre of BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL) — a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the “Military Industrial Consortium” “NPO Mashinostroyenia” of Russia — was arrested on Monday morning, in a joint operation by the Anti-Terrorism Squads of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Military Intelligence on charges of spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.

Following a tip-off, the Military Intelligence had placed engineer Nishant Agrawal — who was working with BAPL for the past four years —under the surveillance. Agrawal was allegedly passing on certain highly classified information to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. Agrawal, who was staying in a rented accommodation on Wardha Road at Nagpur for the past one year, has been booked under the Official Secrets Act.

The UP ATS will be taking Agrawal to Lucknow on Tuesday after obtaining his transit remand from a Nagpur court. The investigations have prima facie revealed that Agrawal, an apparent victim of honey-trap, used to chat with fake women IDs created on Facebook by the ISI.

The investigators have recovered “very sensitive information” from Agrawal’s personal computers. They have also found evidence of him chatting on Facebook with Pakistan-based ISI operatives. “We have found him storing classified information on his personal lap. This is strictly in violation of the Official Secrets Act. This is one of the reasons for our arresting Agrawal,” the UP ATS said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the UP ATS officials have arrested one more person from Kanpur in connection with the spying case. “We have also seized laptop of the arrested person. After examining the laptop, we will get to know role of the arrested person,” the UP ATS statement said.

BAPL is involved in making certain critical components for the BrahMos missile, considered the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from land, ships, aircraft or submarines.

On July 16 this year, BrahMos was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore, Odisha. The test-firing conducted from a mobile autonomous launcher was part of service life extension programme for Indian Army under extreme weather condition.

 

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