DRDO scientists under IB lens
Scientists, engineers and employees working in the laboratories of the Defence Research and Deve-lopment Organi-sation (DRDO) are kept under strict surveillance by their respective laboratory vigilance wings, in a joint operation with the state’s Intelligence Bureau.
Employees’ activities and their contacts are thoroughly screened by the vigilance officials
under the direction of the Director General, Vigilance.
Yet this high profile surveillance could not detect the growing connection between BrahMos Aerospace scientist
Nishant Agarwal and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Nishant’s name came up not through the lab surveillance but while interrogating another spy, Achyutanand Mishra of the BSF who was allegedly honey-trapped by the ISI,
Nishant Agarwal was arrested from a BrahMos facility in the DRDO’s facility in Nagpur for leaking sensitive data about India's defence establishments and plans.
When this correspondent enquired about the role of the DRDO lab vigilance, a source in the DRDO explained, “Scientists working with DRDO are answerable to the nation, thus projects and production are kept a secret. Employees, be it scientists or engineers, are barred from carrying CDs, floppy discs, pen drives, cell phones or other electronic gadget that can transmit sensitive data.”
Under the directions of Vigilance Director General, officials are monitoring employees activities, their contacts.
Scientists, engineers and employees working in the laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are kept under strict surveillance by their respective laboratory vigilance wings, in a joint operation with the state’s Intelligence Bureau.
A source in the DRDO explained, “Every lab has a designated vigilance team that keeps an eagle eye on an employee’s online activities. This apart, as DRDO works with technical educational institutions, a vigil is also kept on third parties. Secondly, stiff screening of foreign nationals visiting the laboratories is done; the reports are shared with the Intelligence Bureau."
Although, strict surveillance is in place, the arrested scientist was a soft target and went undetected
until his spy partner spilled the beans.
Retired army officer and defence historian J.K. Sharma, said, “I am not surprised by the arrest or the security breach. We’ve had instances in the past as well. But, the shocking part is a low-level BSF spy, Achyutanand Mishra actually revealing the names of the scientist who works in a completely different category of the nation’s defence wing. This gives an insight into a possible bigger spy-ring. Usually the enemy handlers do not disclose the names of spies while interacting with one spy. But this BSF man knew about the scientist and that is shocking. Either it is a lapse on the part of the ISI or a bigger spy network is still undetected.”
Another retired defence official who worked with the Defence signalling department said it is a failure of all avenues of vigilance of the lab and the IB.