Uttarakhand: The stigma of sedition was removed from the young scientist’s forehead after eight years; his mother and wife endured an undeclared imprisonment

Nishant Agarwal, a 27-year-old young scientist from Roorkee, who was working with his colleagues on missile development at BrahMos Aerospace in Nagpur and had recently received the Young Scientist Award from DRDO, was suddenly arrested by the ATS of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra on charges of leaking BrahMos missile technology to Pakistan.

For his wife, who had been married to him just five and a half months earlier, the morning of October 8, 2018, was like a dark night. While her husband, branded a traitor, spent eight years behind bars, his wife and mother endured an undeclared imprisonment at home. Happiness returned to their home on December 1, 2025, with the Bombay High Court’s acquittal.

Kshitija Agarwal, speaking from her in-laws’ house in Nehru Nagar, Roorkee, along with her mother-in-law Ritu Agarwal, said that her husband, Nishant Agarwal, had joined BrahMos Aerospace in Nagpur as a scientist in 2013. In October 2018, Nishant received the Young Scientist Award from DRDO in Delhi. His marriage had taken place about five and a half months before that. Then, on the morning of October 8, the UP and Maharashtra ATS knocked on their door at 4:30 AM, searched their house, seized his laptop and mobile phone, and arrested Nishant.

The ground slipped from beneath their feet

They couldn’t understand anything. She said that the charge sheet was filed in the Nagpur Sessions Court about nine months later. They went through extremely difficult times for about six years, and on June 3, 2024, contrary to their expectations, when the court sentenced him to life imprisonment, the ground slipped from beneath their feet because they knew that even the forensic team had not found any evidence of information leakage. Despite this, they did not lose hope. They picked themselves up and appealed the decision in the High Court.

Finally, truth prevailed

Finally, truth prevailed, and on December 1, 2025, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court delivered a verdict in their favor. Kshitija explained that it was never proven in court that any data had been transferred from the laptop, because there was no such data. However, some useless training materials were found on the laptop, which were used as evidence against him. Nishant’s mother, Ritu Agarwal, said that after her son was sentenced, she was breathing but not truly alive; she was only surviving on hope. Kshitija Agarwal said that her husband refused to bring their son to visit him in jail, as he was confident that he would be released one day.

Every eye held questions, and the accusations were deeply painful

The ATS team had also gone to Roorkee at that time and seized a laptop from there. During that time, the stares of the people around them were deeply distressing to the wife and mother. Ritu Agarwal said that the behavior of their neighbors changed, but their relatives stood by them and believed in them.