New Delhi: Nishant Aggarwal, an engineer of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd who was associated with its missile projects in Nagpur, was detained on Monday on suspicion of leaking sensitive details about the nuclear-capable cruise missile. According to sources, he was promised a job in America with a hefty pay package by his “Pakistani handlers”.

“His interrogation has revealed that he was promised better job prospects by the handlers who posed as women and honey-trapped him. These accounts have been traced to Pakistan,” an official said. 

The suspect, Aggarwal, is a senior systems engineer at BrahMos Aerospace’s unit at Butibori. He was detained from Nagpur in a joint operation carried out by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Military Intelligence, and the local police.

Agarwal is suspected to have shared confidential information about the BrahMos missile system with Pakistan. According to a report in The Times of India, placed sources in the ATS revealed that Agarwal had used a “coded game” to send vital information to ISI agents in Pakistan. 

Aggarwal studied at the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, and also worked as a research intern at IIT-Roorkee. He was supervising new projects at BrahMos’ Nagpur and Pilani facilities and was privy to a lot of sensitive information.

The BrahMos is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land. It is the fastest cruise missile in the world. The BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation and Russia’s Military Industrial Consortium, NPO Mashinostroyenia.

The BrahMos missile helped India complete a 'Supersonic Cruise Missile Triad' - an ability to fire the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile from land, air, and sea - in November last year.

Aggarwal’s father told the media that his son is being framed and demanded an investigation. Aggarwal lived with his wife in a rented house in Ujjwal Nagar, Nagpur.