Brahmos info leak: Defence argues no sensitive data copied to personal device

Nagpur: The final hearing in the appeal against the conviction of former Brahmos Aerospace scientist Nishant Agrawal in an official secrets leak case started on Thursday. The defence counsel argued that Agrawal had a lot of sensitive information that he never stored on his personal devices, and the documents found on his personal devices were given by his senior as part of his training.

Agrawal, who was once awarded the young scientist award, had been sentenced to life in June last year by a lower court. He was arrested in 2018, got bail five years later in April 2023, and was later convicted. In the HC, Agrawal was represented by senior advocate Sunil Manohar. The lawyer said Agrawal was also involved in the delivery of a number of missiles to the armed forces and had important information, which he never copied.

None of the information was found on his personal device. What was found by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) was the data handed over as part of his training by his senior, the defence claimed.

The defence counsel also argued that Agrawal did not communicate a single word on Facebook and only accepted friend requests from Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan. The prosecution itself stated that he was trying to ‘face a interview' and talked to Sejal Kapoor only for that purpose, said the lawyer.

Advocate Chaitanya Barve, who assisted Manohar in the defence, said the next date has been granted on April 23. This would be followed by the prosecution presenting its side before the court. Agrawal has been in jail after his conviction.

According to the original case, Agrawal was contacted by Pakistani intelligence operatives (PIOs) disguised as Neha Sharma, Pooja Ranjan, and Sejal Kapoor. The agents planted a bug on his personal device to access the information. Agrawal was arrested by the ATS following an early morning raid at his residence in the city on October 9. One of the grounds was that official information was found on his personal device. According to the sleuths he was not supposed to keep the information on his personal devices.