Nagpur: The arrest of Nishant Aggarwal, a young engineer at BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited, in an alleged spying case has led to a security overhaul at facilities belonging to the organisation. Even as security rules were place, now a consolidated standard operating procedure (SOP) has been implemented. The employees are now supposed to strictly abide by the guidelines, which also restrict carrying any private electronic devices to the facility. 

The employees working here were made to read the rules book, and sign an undertaking that they have understood the details entirely. Any violation can lead to action including issuing of a show-cause notice.

The rules deal with entry to the facilities, carrying of telephones, personal laptops and other devices, which may be of help in copying any data from the organisation. 

Sources said the rules were already in place, but the episode has led to a focused approach. Now all security rules mentioned for different procedures have been crystallised into one. Even the entry of private contractors and other civilians visiting the facility has been controlled. No outsider can enter without the permission of the departmental head, said sources. 

Aggarwal had been arrested on charges of having classified documents on his personal laptop, which allowed alleged Pakistani agents to get access to them. The data was not supposed to be in his personal computer. During investigations, Aggarwal is reported to have confessed that he had taken the data from his senior’s official computer during his tenure at Hyderabad. BrahMos Aerospace has facilities at Nagpur and Hyderabad.

However, despite the tightening of norms, sources say sharing of design cannot be ruled out entirely as it has to be done for official business too. This is because the very objective of the company is to indigenise the missile system, in which private players are also involved. For development of a particular spare, the designs have to be shared. Even as it happens under a non-disclosure agreement there are chances of a leakage.

The very purpose of setting up of BrahMos Aerospace is to indigenise the production of the Russian missile systems.

Aggarwal is currently under judicial custody remand in Lucknow after the Uttar Pradesh’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested him from Nagpur last month. He has also told sleuths that others in the organisation too had similar data on private devices. Action has not been taken against any other official of the company after his arrest.