Indian Army soldier arrested from Meerut cantonment for his alleged role in passing sensitive information to Pakistan’s ISI; Interrogation underway

A serving soldier of Indian Army’s Signal Regiment has been arrested from Meerut cantonment on the charge of espionage. The arrest allegedly happened in connection with the arrest of the DRDO scientist. However, at the moment, the army is not talking about it.

The soldier is currently being grilled over his alleged role in passing sensitive information about Indian Army to Pakistan-based intelligence operatives via social media. Investigation of the case is under progress by Army Intelligence authorities.

Earlier on October 8, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra ATS had arrested one suspected ISI agent from Brahmos missile unit in Maharashtra's Nagpur. The suspected spy was working with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and was allegedly passing on information to ISI. The detained person was identified as one Nishant Aggarwal and had been held for leaking Brahmos missile secrets.  

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Furthermore, after the arrest of the ISI agent, 2 more scientists, who work for the DMSRDE lab in Kanpur have been detained by the Uttar Pradesh ATS. DMSRDE Defence Materials and Stores Research and Development Establishment (DMSRDE) is a laboratory of the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Aggarwal was working with BrahMos for the last 4 years or so and was also a topper of his college.

Meanwhile, on October 11, a Lucknow court sent BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Aggarwal to police remand for seven days.

Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Himanshu Dayal Srivastava passed the order on an application moved by Inspector Pankaj Awasthi of the the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police.

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The custody remand period would begin on Thursday at 9 pm.

He was flown to Lucknow From Nagpur.

The ATS 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 was 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.