Bombay HC grants bail to ex-BrahMos engineer held for spying

The HC directed him to furnish a personal bond of R25,000 and attend the Nagpur police station three times a week till the end of the trial

The Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench has granted bail to a former engineer of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, held on charges of spying for Pakistan’s ISI, noting he has been in jail for four years and six months and the trial in the case may not conclude soon.

A single bench of Justice Anil Kilor, while granting him bail on April 3, also remarked that prima facie there was no material to suggest Nishant Aggrawal committed the alleged act intentionally. The HC directed him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 25,000 and attend the Nagpur police station three times a week till the end of the trial.

Arrested in 2018

The Military Intelligence and the Anti-Terrorism Squads of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh arrested Aggrawal, employed in the technical research section of the company’s missile centre in Nagpur, in October 2018 in a joint operation. He was booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the stringent Official Secrets Act (OSA) for leaking sensitive technical information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He had worked at the BrahMos facility for four years.

Also read: Mumbai: 47-yr-old held after ‘tip-off’ on 3 ‘Pak terrorists’

Senior advocate S V Manohar and advocate Deven Chauhan, appearing for Aggrawal, had argued that provisions of the OSA would not stand against their client.

HC on slow probe

The court said the prosecution’s case is that of honey trap and noted that it was not the prosecution’s case that if Aggrawal, originally hailing from Roorkee in Uttarakhand, was released on bail, there would be danger to the safety and security of the state. The HC also took note of the fact that in the past nine months only six witnesses were examined, while 11 others were yet to testify. Hence, it is clear the trial would not conclude soon.

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