Nagpur: What started as a lousy day on October 8, which was a local holiday for newspapers, turned out to be rather hectic following news of a ‘spy’ being caught at Brahmos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL), a high-profile defence facility near Butibori.It was an exciting day for reporters like the diarist, but for a newly-married young engineer what followed early that morning was certainly a nightmare.Cops swooped down on the house of Nishant Aggarwal, a 27-year old engineer working at BAPL, at 5am and began grilling him. He was booked under the Official Secrets Act.Nishant’s was a perfect life which any youngster of his age would have dreamt of. He got the BAPL job through campus recruitment, won the young scientist award at the organization and was leading a happy married life. He had tied the knot four months ago.Soon, the entire neighbourhood gathered outside the house and each one of them had a say in the affair. The onlookers took it as a chance to prove their patriotism. “A traitor, he must not be spared,” said a middle-aged man. “How could someone betray his country for some money,” added a woman. A 12-year-old boy who had come along with his mother said he wanted to see the “terrorist”.The police interrogation continued till 8 in the evening, and the crowd patiently waited outside. Gradually, what looked like a lynch mob, softened. It began with sympathies towards Nishant’s wife. Soon, theories that an “innocent” Nishant may have been trapped started doing rounds. A day later, the diarist came across womenfolk gesturing with folded hands praying for his well-being.The arrest was a joint operation by anti-terrorist squad of Uttar Pradesh state police and its counterpart in Maharashtra. The police stated in the court that Pakistani agents posing as young girls had contacted Nishant through Facebook and eventually stole from his personal laptop secret data about missiles.The diarist started wondering if it would end up like the Nambi Narayan case in which this ISRO scientist was held for espionage in 1994 and acquitted four years later. This year, the Supreme Court awarded Naryana a compensation of Rs50 lakh. Or may be this would turn out to be a controversy like the Samba spying scandal of 1979.Nishant remains under custody and the developments remain a top secret. Though much needs to be known in the matter.His father who rushed to Nagpur after the arrest was seen pleading the cops to let him meet his son once. Nishant was flown to Lucknow without his father getting a chance to meet him at Nagpur. “These things are usual for us, but even we were moved when both Nishant and wife broke down when he was finally being taken away,” said a senior cop here.(Expect Shishir Arya to sniff stories in situations which seem routine to many)

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