NEW DELHI - Indian law-enforcement officers have arrested an engineer of the Indian-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace on charges of allegedly spying for Pakistan, the police of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh said on Tuesday. "Very sensitive information was found on his personal computer. We found evidence of him chatting on Facebook with Pakistan-based IDs," chief of the anti-terror department of Uttar Pradesh state, Aseem Arun, said, as quoted by the NDTV broadcaster. According to the publication, the person in question is the employee of the technical research section named Nishant Agrawal, who has worked in the company for four years and was characterized by his colleagues as an outstanding engineer. Agrawal was arrested during a joint operation, which was conducted by the Indian military intelligence together with the police of the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the broadcaster noted.
Agrawal’s personal and work computers were seized and are being checked. However, some experts expressed doubts that this employee really had access to confidential data.
BrahMos Aerospace has not commented on this information, the news outlet added.
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture of Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The company is producing the world's fastest cruise missile BrahMos, named after Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers. The BrahMos missile, which can be launched from land, ships, aircraft or submarines, is capable of hitting targets as much as 300 kilometers (190 miles) away, flying at a speed of 3,400–3,700 kilometer per hour (2,100–2,300 mph).