• The Nagpur district court handed life imprisonment to former BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd engineer Nishant Agarwal under the Official Secrets Act for spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.

• Agarwal was convicted under section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code for an offence punishable under section 66(f) of the IT Act and various sections of the Official Secrets Act.

• Agarwal, employed in the technical research section of the company’s missile centre in Nagpur, was arrested in a joint operation by the military intelligence and Anti-terrorism squads (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in 2018.

• The former BrahMos Aerospace engineer was booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the stringent Official Secrets Act, 1923.

• He had worked at the Brahmos facility for four years and was accused of leaking sensitive technical information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

• BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.

Official Secrets Act

• The Official Secrets Act, 1923 was enacted during the colonial era.

• It governs all matters of secrecy and confidentiality in governance. The law largely deals with matters of security and provides a framework for dealing with espionage, sedition and other assaults on the unity and integrity of the nation.

• It is an Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to official secrets.

• The Official Secrets Act is the main statute for fighting espionage activities which vitally affect national security. 

• It was enacted to safeguard privacy and confidentiality of the government particularly for national security purposes. 

• The Act extends to the whole of India including any office or employment under any department of the government and applies also to individuals contracted or employed on behalf of the government and citizens outside India.

Main provisions of the Act:

• Penalties for spying: Engaging in activities, such as accessing forbidden areas, creating sketches or plans for the benefit of enemies, collecting and sharing secret codes, passwords, documents, or notes that could aid enemies and likely to affect the sovereignty and integrity of India and compromise the safety and security of the country, is punishable up to 14 years.

• Wrongful communication of information: If any person having in his/her possession or control any secret official code or password or any sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or information which relates to or is used in a prohibited place or relates to anything in such a place, or which is likely to assist, directly or indirectly, an enemy he/she shall be guilty of an offence under Section 5. 

• Penalty for harbouring spies: Knowingly harbouring any person who has committed an offence or about to commit under the Act, is an offence which is punishable with imprisonment up to three years or with fine or with both. 

• Unauthorised use of uniforms, falsification of reports, forgery, personation, and false documents are also punishable.

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