Nagpur court rejects BrahMos Aersopace engineer's bail plea

A court here on Monday rejected the bail application of Nishant Agarwal, an engineer from BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL), who has been accused of leaking secret information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The bail plea was dismissed by District Judge F M Ali. He is lodged in Nagpur Central Jail.

Agarwal, who was working as a senior systems engineer at the BrahMos Aerospace facility in Nagpur, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh Police in October last year.

The ATS had alleged that it found evidence of him chatting on Facebook with Pakistan-based IDs. He was arrested after conclusive evidence was gathered, it had said.

His personal computer was seized during a raid at his residence in Nagpur.

The BrahMos missile, which has a maximum range of 290 km, is the fastest cruise missile in the world. It can be launched from a submarine, ship, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India and NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOM) of Russia.