BrahMos missiles under production in the factory at BrahMos Aerospace Pvt. Ltd

Nagpur: Among the data retrieved by the ATS team from Nishant Aggarwal’s computers included a manual related to Brahmos missiles supplied to the Indian Navy 10 years ago. 

Sources said sleuths investigating the matter with the Brahmos Aerospace officials had come with these drawings. The papers were meant to be with user of the system, the Indian Navy, and also with Brahmos Aerospace.

Sources said that though marked as secret, these drawings have only basic information of missiles.

While one could know the details related to missile, it would be impossible to replicate the weapon or design a counter to it using them. The question certainly remains how could something marked secret got out.

The missile has undergone many upgrades since the manual was made.

However, ATS shared only a small part of what it recovered with Brahmos officials. The cops said they had around 1000 documents which have not been entirely disclosed to Brahmos’ personnel. Sources said this was bigger worry for the company. “We need to know what exactly has gone out apart from what has been shown,” Brahmos officials said. If some really crucial information is leaked, counter measures will have to be taken soon. ATS may submit papers only before the court, but the company would stress information before hand.

At Brahmos Aerospace, the engineers of Aggarwal’s level, are supposed to have user manual for day to day reference during work.

Sometime in 2011 when a stronger system was not put in place, a soft copy of the drawings of Naval missiles were circulated among the personnel. It was a routine affair but it was meant to be kept within the office. This was to make reference easy. How it travelled to Aggarwal’s computer remains a question, said sources.

Under the current system, drawings within the computers cannot be copied or altered. The engineers or technicians can see them on a special screen. If a print is needed, each print copy is accounted for, signed and counter signed, sources said.

Although the same user manual is still the basic reference guide for personnel over here and everyone one from top to bottom has it in physical form, it is strictly meant to be kept within the office.

Sources said Brahmos Aerospace does not work like a typical defence organisation. It is a for-profit entity incorporated under Companies Act and works as such. Drawings are also shared with vendors that include private industries and even probable vendors are given the designs before they take part in bidding process. Of course, a secrecy clause has to be signed, but being private organisation the papers are likely to change several hands. It is not a major threat as much of the information that in them is not crucial, said a source.