Brahmos scientist arrested in Nagpur for passing info to ISI, CIA

NP NEWS NETWORK

Nagpur 

Sleuths from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra besides Military Intelligence (MI) officials have nabbed a scientist working with Brahmos Aerospace in Nagpur, for allegedly passing sensitive information to Pakistan’s ISI and America’s CIA. Brahmos is the fastest cruise missile in the world and it has been jointly developed by India and Russia.

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The arrested scientist has been identified as Nishant Agarwal, a native of Uttarakhand. He was working with the DRDO and posted at the Brahmos Aerospace centre here for the last four years. He has been accused of passing information related to the Brahmos missile.

The intelligence sleuths had been tracking his activities and he was finally arrested on Monday. An FIR has been registered against him for offences under the Officials Secrets Act.

The BrahMos (designated PJ-10) is a medium-range ramjetsupersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land. It is the fastest cruise missile in the world. It is a joint venture between the Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace. It is based on the Russian P-800 Oniks cruise missile and other similar sea-skimming Russian cruise missile technology. The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.

It is the world’s fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation.The missile travels at speeds of Mach 2.8 to 3.0,[8] which is being upgraded to Mach 5.0. The land-launched and ship-launched versions are already in service, with the air and submarine-launched versions currently in the testing phase. An air-launched variant of BrahMos appeared in 2012. A hypersonicversion of the missile, BrahMos-II, is also presently under development with a speed of Mach 7-8 to boost aerial fast strike capability. It is expected to be ready for testing by 2020.

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India wanted the BrahMos to be based on a mid range cruise missile like the P-700 Granit. Its propulsion is based on the Russian missile, and missile guidance has been developed by BrahMos Aerospace. The missile is expected to reach a total order US$13 billion.

In 2016, as India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), India and Russia are now planning to jointly develop a new generation of Brahmos missiles with 600 km-plus range and an ability to hit protected targets with pinpoint accuracy.