Nishant Agrawal remanded to 7-day police custody
Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal, the accused in Brahmos espionage case, was sent to seven-day police remand on Thursday.
Nishant has been accused of sending sensitive information to the ISI and his custody remand period began on Thursday at 9 pm
The court of Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Himanshu Dayal Srivastava granted seven-day police custody of Nishant after considering an application moved by Inspector Pankaj Awasthi of the the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police.
Agrawal was arrested Monday in a joint operation by the Uttar Pradesh Police and their Maharashtrian counterpart at BrahMos' Wardha Road facility in Nagpur for allegedly leaking "technical information" to Pakistan.
He was flown to Lucknow From Nagpur.
The ATS Thursday sought his custody from the court for the purpose of interrogation.
Agarwal's lawyer opposed the remand, pleading that he was a young scientist who is being implicated as part of a "conspiracy".
The court said secret and prohibited information was found from Agarwal's laptop. It also took note of his activity on Facebook.
It is alleged that Agrawal was in contact with two Facebook accounts -- 'Neha Sharma' and 'Pooja Ranjan' -- suspected to be operated by Pakistani intelligence agents.
He has been booked under the Official Secrets Act.
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the 'Military Industrial Consortium' (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.
(With PTI inputs)
