A Delhi court has said that deeper investigation was required to unearth whether any Indian or member of a rebel ethnic group were linked to the seven foreign nationals arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) of illegally entering the country and supporting insurgent groups.
In an order dated March 27 passed by NIA special judge Prashant Sharma of Patiala House Courts, extending the custody of the seven foreign nationals by ten days, the court posed multiple questions, “Why did the accused persons come to India? Why did they travel to Myanmar? What was their objective in using drones? Did the accused persons use drones for imparting training to any person?”
The court said that it was required to be investigated whether any Indian or any member of a rebel ethnic group in India, was either directly or indirectly linked with the accused persons and what infrastructure was used by accused persons visiting India and beyond.
The court said it was in agreement with the NIA’s allegations based on the contents of the case diaries and the facts of the case which were sensitive in nature.
The judge conducted the proceedings at the agency’s headquarters last Friday, in view of the highly sensitive nature of the case, after the custody of the accused persons had expired. The accused will now be produced next on April 6.
The court emphasised, “Such questions and questions of like nature required investigation”.
On March 16, the court had allowed NIA an 11-day custody of the accused persons, identified as US national Matthew Aaron Van Dyke and Ukrainian nationals Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor.
The NIA’s case states that the Ukrainians had allegedly entered India on tourist visas on separate dates and flew to Guwahati, before travelling to Mizoram without the requisite documents such as the Restricted Area Permit.
The federal agency further alleged that these individuals illegally entered Myanmar to impart “pre-scheduled training” for Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAO) in that country, known to support terror organisations/gangs operating in India in the domain of drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology, etc targeting the Myanmar Junta.
The agency had told the court that Dyke and the six arrested Ukrainians have admitted during their questioning that they conducted training for EAGs on more than one occasion, “in addition to illegally importing huge consignments of drones from Europe to Myanmar via India for the use of EAGs.
