BrahMos engineer was in touch with 3 'Pakistan' accounts

Nishant Agarwal

Brahmos engineer Nishant Agarwal, who was arrested from Nagpur on Monday, was allegedly in touch with three supposedly fake Facebook accounts of women, all from Pakistan.

The names of the accounts were Sejal Sharma, Jaspreet Kaur and Khanna, whose first name has not been revealed. Agarwal, an engineer with the BrahMos Aerospace at Nagpur, was arrested on Monday for allegedly leaking information to Pakistan's ISI about a missile project. He was held in a joint operation carried out by the Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

Officials suspect the FB accounts they've found were operated under fake names, and Agarwal had been in touch with them for over two years. They suspect that these IDs could have been bots used to honey-trap him, a trick typically used by agencies from across the border. They are now probing if Agarwal was in touch with other such people from Pakistan.

UP ATS's probe will now look into whether Agarwal got any money from these women. His bank accounts are being scanned. Sources said Maharashtra ATS is looking into his life and activities in Nagpur. The engineer, who got married two months ago, was residing in a rented accommodation on Wardha Road for the last year.

While ATS has seized a lot of sensitive material from him, they are now in the process of extracting his digital data. Officials suspect Agarwal deleted a lot of stuff; his email IDs and other social media accounts are also being checked. The agencies are also looking up places he's been to in India and abroad and if any of them were vital installations.

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