Nishant Agarwal DRDO’S YOUNGEST SCIENTIST AWARD winner accused Spying for PAK’s ISI
After the ceasefire following the India-Pakistan conflict, a few days after that, in coordinated operations in several states of India, Indian security agencies unearthed a very large and elaborate spying network working knowingly or unknowingly for Pakistan’s ISI. According to reports, 12 people have been arrested so far, including a famous Haryana YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who has a YouTube channel named “Travel With Jo”. In this, 6 people from Punjab, 5 from Haryana and 1 from Uttar Pradesh have been arrested.
These 12 people are not the first ones to fall into ISI’s honeytrap and money trap. Even before this, many people have fallen into this trap of ISI. Once, even a scientist from BrahMos aerospace unit was caught in this trap of ISI.
For your information, let us tell you that this was neither a typical honey trap nor a money trap. But how did DRDO’s youngest scientist award winner and NIT gold medalist NISHANT AGARWAL get trapped in this trap? He himself did not know about it until he was arrested.
Nishant Agarwal Background
It was 2009 when Nishant Aggarwal lived in Roorkee with his family. At the age of 19, Nishant gave the AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Exam) to study engineering. His AIR rank was very good in all India, due to which he got admission in Mechanical Engineering at NIT Kurukshetra. Nishant was very bright in studies, due to which the professors also liked him. Due to his thirst for knowledge, determination and analytical skills, his research capabilities were exceptional. Nishant published 6-7 research papers in national conferences and international journals during his time at NIT. For these research papers and for being the best in his batch, he was awarded a gold medal at NIT.
In 2012, Nishant Agarwal had just given his 3rd year exams. During this time, he won a scholarship called DAAD WISE. Under this scholarship, Nishant was selected for a research internship at TU DARMSTADT, Germany. He did this internship under Professor Dr. Cameron Tropea.
Joining In BrahMos Aerospace
In the last few months of 2012, Nishant got a very big job offer while he was still in college, due to his good ranking and strong position profile. This offer came from BrahMos Aerospace. As soon as he completed his graduation in 2013, Nishant, who was always active on Facebook, posted the photos of his convocation ceremony with his family there. Nishant’s entire family was very happy with his graduation and getting a job in BrahMos. In May 2013, Nishant joined BrahMos immediately after completing his graduation. For your information, BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture of India’s DRDO and Russia’s Mashinostroyeniya. In 2013, Nishant started working as a system engineer in BrahMos. Famous for his dedication and expertise right from college, Nishant got his first promotion within just 3 years. He was promoted to Senior system manager in Jan 2017.
During his tenure, Nishant was working in the deeply technical research section which works on the production of missiles. Nishant was a very crucial and important member of his core team. This team gave around 70-80 missiles to the Indian Armed Forces between 2014 and 2018. In 2017 itself, Nishant was given the Youngest Scientist Award by DRDO for his crucial and important contribution. Nishant was working in the Butibori unit of Brahmos, which is in Nagpur. It is said that this phase of 2017-2018 was a bit crucial for Nishant and his team. During this time, work had to be done on the fuel management system and highly sensitive seeker technology in the Brahmos missile. This highly sensitive seeker technology is used for exact precision. Due to this technology, the spy agencies of many countries had their direct attention on this project, especially the USA’s CIA and Pakistan’s ISI. Pakistan’s spy agency ISI had been keeping a close eye on this project since the last few months of 2017.
How social media trapped Nishant Agarwal ?
Nishant Agarwal was active on all social media platforms while working in Brahmos. Nishant was available on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn but he was more active on Facebook and LinkedIn. It was often seen that Nishant used to actively comment on foreign job vacancies from his LinkedIn account. Those who use LinkedIn would know that when foreign countries or local companies post jobs, people comment below “Interested” or “You can check our profile”. Similarly, Nishant was also doing something similar. Nishant had shared all the details on his profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, not only that he was working in Brahmos but also what work he was doing from when to when and which people worked under him and what were their roles and responsibilities. If you work in the defense related sector of any country, such information is very sensitive to post. Nishant should have kept in mind that he should follow the security protocols and circulars issued by the Defense Ministry. Under this, you should not be highly active on social media. Even if you are on social media, you cannot share such sensitive information. But despite this, Nishant Agarwal was not only available on all social media platforms but was also highly active.
In 2017 itself, Nishant got a request from two girls named Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan on Facebook. It was written on the profiles of these girls that they are young professionals, one is based in the USA and the other lives in Canada. Nishant accepted the request and after this both the girls started talking to Nishant. After some time, Nishant got a request from Neha and Pooja’s Facebook mutual friend Sezal Kapoor. Nishant accepted Sezal’s request after seeing that both his Facebook friends were mutual friends. It was written on Sezal’s profile that she is a recruiter in UK’s Hase Aviation. Sezal had already started talking to Nishant on Facebook, after that Sezal sent a follow request to Nishant on LinkedIn and they got connected there too. Sezal started taking the conversation that she had started on Facebook forward on LinkedIn. Sezal noticed Nishant’s comments on Linkdln and noticed that he was very interested in foreign postings. Sezal then told Nishant that he was very brilliant and intelligent and that is why we want to offer him a high paying job abroad. Nishant and Sezal were talking on Linkdln and Nishant believed Sezal’s words. This was the biggest mistake Nishant made.
When Nishant was talking to Sezal on Linkdln, Nishant was in a good position in Brahmos. Nishant was currently handling a team of 40 people of WARHead Integration which also included technicians. But despite this, he got trapped in the trap of ISI while looking for another job opportunity. It is said that about a month later in December 2017, Sezal sends 3 applications to Nishant and tells him about the recruitment process and asks him to install those applications on his laptop or PC. Nishant installed these applications on his laptop. Nishant did not know that these applications contained malware of which he was not aware. This malware silently started leaking all the classified files in Nishant’s laptop. This information was continuously reaching Nishant’s so called Facebook friends Pooja, Neha and Sezal. These three girls were not recruiters but agents of Pakistan’s ISI. ISI had trapped India’s youngest scientist cum engineer, who could have a very bright future, by using its female operators. It is said that all the information leaked from Nishant’s laptop was related to the crucial information seeker technology. Apart from this, 19 such files present in his hard disk and laptop were leaked, out of which 17 were very classified and secret. 17 such files and technology related information shared between India and Russia related to Brahmos missile technology also reached Pakistan’s ISI directly.
Suspicious activities of Brahmos
Nishant agarwal got married about 5 months later in May 2018. During this time, it is said that Indian Military Intelligence noticed some suspicious activities in Brahmos Aerospace. When Military Intelligence started monitoring the online behavior of Brahmos scientists and engineers. Under all this, in October 2018, on the input of Military Intelligence, UP Anti Terrorism Squad and Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad 1 launched a joint operation in Nagpur. Under this joint operation, Nishant was arrested from his Nagpur house in the morning and all his gadgets including his laptop, mobile and hard drive were seized.
Forensic investigation was conducted on the seized gadgets of Nishant. The forensic investigation report revealed that Nishant had installed a suspicious link, which was capable of sharing all the data of the laptop on an online cloud server. Earlier, statements were coming out that America’s CIA might be behind all this. Because the intelligence had received reports that some data related to Brahmos was passed on to American agencies. But later, when investigation was done, it was found that this cloud server is directly connected to Pakistan.
Nishant is arrested for leaking information to ISI. During interrogation, the authorities asked Nishant the reason for having classified information in his personal laptop. But the authorities did not get any satisfactory answer. Nishant did not know that his laptop had been hacked, his family also found out through the authorities and agencies that Nishant’s laptop had been hacked. The family also questioned that if Nishant’s laptop had been hacked, then how could the authorities say that Nishant was working with ISI.
But the investigators had a different stand on this. They believed that what was Nishant doing on his personal laptop, who had knowingly or unknowingly shared sensitive technology related to the Brahmos missile with the ISI. They said that these classified documents and data should not have been on his laptop. Under the official secret acts, no scientist or engineer can obtain any document of the defense sector on a personal computer or laptop. This is a violation of the norms of BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited and the Defense Ministry. Nishant is arrested under Section 66 of the IT Act (Cyber Terrorism) and the Official Secrets Act.
Legal Battle
On 14 April 2023, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court finally accepted Nishant agarwal ‘s bail plea. After nearly 4 years and 8 months of his arrest, Nishant gets some relief. But since the case is ongoing, the High Court transfers the case to the trail court.
After about 1 year, on 3 June 2024, the Nagpur District Court declared Nishant guilty on the basis of all the witnesses and evidence. The court imposed life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3000 under section 235 of CrPC (Criminal Procedure Court) and Official Secrets Act.
The District court said in its judgment that despite being a brilliant scientist of Brahmos, he ignored the security protocols of BAPL and the Defense Ministry. Even after knowing that according to the protocols, one cannot create an account on social media. Despite this, Nishant Agarwal created social media accounts and kept using them actively. It was also told that Nishant also created two fake accounts from where he used to talk to these ISI operated accounts.
This legal battle did not end here. Nishant Agarwal appealed again in Nagpur High Court in Nagpur Bench for his life sentence. In the court hearing. The prosecution in its argument said that out of the 19 documents that were leaked from Nishant, 17 were classified in which information about Brahmos missile technology between Russia and India was leaked by Nishant. This information may be enough for enemy countries to jam this missile and create a defense mechanism. All these things can prove to be a challenge for national security. It was also said that Nishant copied secret documents in his laptop in an unauthorized manner during his posting in Hyderabad and Nagpur, which was unauthorised.
But Nishant claimed in his defense that no data was leaked. Nishant was unknowingly implicated in this by ISI. The defense even said that Nishant’s seniors had given some documents at the time of joining him and 27 other executives, which they completed and submitted to their seniors. There was no document in it that was sensitive or secret.
After hearing the arguments of the prosecution and the defense, the court sentenced Nishant Aggarwal to life imprisonment on 24 October 2024. And also said that the evidence presented against Nishant is incriminating.
ISI operated more Facebook Accounts
Around 2023-2024, UP ATS detected around 125 profiles which were suspected to be ISI planted. After this, they started monitoring all these profiles. During monitoring, it was found that through these profiles, requests were sent to some Indian security personnel, defense staff or scientist. Apart from this, there was definitely one officer in their mutual friend list who was either in the Indian Army or Central Paramilitary Forces. Other agencies like ISI and CIA have been trapping many officers of the country in their net.
Nishant once wrote a letter to his family from jail with which he had attached a news clipping. This clipping mentioned the fake spy case of Nabi Narayan. Nishant believed that he too had been wrongly accused like Nabi Narayan.
What do you think about this? Please tell us in the comment section.
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