Monday brought great relief for former BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal. The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has canceled the life sentence awarded to him in the espionage case. The court clearly said that Nishant Aggarwal has not done anything “against the national interest”. Although the court found him guilty of negligence, he acquitted him of the serious charges of espionage. This decision was given by the division bench of Justice Anil Kilor and Justice Praveen Patil.
Nishant Aggarwal was arrested in 2018 on charges of spying for Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. In June last year, a sessions court found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. But the High Court overturned this decision.
What did the High Court say in its decision?
No evidence of espionage: The court said that the prosecution failed to present any evidence to prove that Nishant did anything that endangered the unity, integrity or security of India.
Just negligence, not betrayal: The court acquitted Nishant from serious sections of the Information Technology Act and Official Secrets Act. However, he was found guilty of ‘negligent handling of sensitive information’ under Section 5(1)(d) of OSA. For this he has been sentenced to 3 years imprisonment.
Clear the way for release from jail: Since Nishant has been in jail since 2018 and has already spent more than 3 years in jail, the court has ordered his release provided he is not wanted in any other case.
‘Sejal Kapoor’ and the truth of the job
Nishant was a ‘Young Scientist’
- The court also cited Nishant’s excellent record. Nishant’s Annual Confidential Report (ACR) was always ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’. He was given the ‘Young Scientist Award’ for his work. He was part of the core team that delivered 70 to 80 missiles between 2014 and 2018.
- The court argued that Nishant had access to much more sensitive and secret data in the office. If his intentions were malicious, he could have misused that data, but no evidence was found that he tampered with the data from the office computer.
- The High Court accepted that Nishant’s conduct was never found to be against the national interest. This decision also raises questions on the investigation process of the security agencies and the lack of evidence, due to which a promising engineer was declared a spy and given life imprisonment.
