Bail granted to 6 Ukrainians in Myanmar drone case
A Delhi court on Wednesday granted default bail to six Ukrainian nationals, arrested in connection with a case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) involving a drone-warfare training camp linked to ethnic armed groups in Myanmar.
Special NIA Judge Prashant Sharma granted bail to the six Ukrainian nationals on a cash bond of Rs 1 lakh each.
The court also discharged them under sections 21 (penalty for unauthorised entry) and 23 (penalty for visa overstay and general contraventions) of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, taking note of the compounding of offences by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).
The FRRO had earlier compounded the offences by imposing a fine of Rs 5.5 lakh on each.
Ukrainian citizens Petro Hurba, Taras Slyviak and Ivan Sukmanovskyi were arrested from the Lucknow airport on March 13.
Three other Ukrainians – Marian Stefankiv, Maksim Honcharuk and Viktor Kaminskyi – were arrested from the Delhi airport the same day.
It was alleged that the six were operating as mercenaries. Meanwhile, the court modified the bail condition of US national Matthew Aaron Van Dyke, who was granted default bail on September 18, on furnishing a personal bond and surety bonds of Rs 1 lakh each. Van Dyke’s plea to go home to the United States will be heard on Friday.
On Wednesday, the court directed the furnishing of only a cash bond of Rs 1 lakh each.
The NIA had earlier registered the case against the Ukrainian nationals and Van Dyke under section 18 (punishment for conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The NIA had probed the case as involving alleged UAPA offences for 180 days after obtaining an extension from the court. However, in its first chargesheet filed on September 8, it invoked provisions of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, while stating that the UAPA probe was continuing.
The agency had said the investigation into offences under the UAPA was kept pending and it could file a supplementary chargesheet if an offence under the anti-terror law was established.
The NIA had also said a substantial part of the further investigation into alleged offences under the UAPA was completed, but more time was required to ascertain the complete facts, particularly in view of the import and recovery of a large quantity of drones and accessories through India.
Earlier, the agency had told the court that the accused were being probed for a wide-ranging terror conspiracy, including assistance to ethnic armed groups in India and Myanmar, and imparting drone training to them.
According to the NIA, the accused had illegally entered Myanmar through Mizoram without valid travel documents and allegedly participated in a pre-scheduled training programme involving drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology for Myanmar-based ethnic armed groups targeting the Myanmar military junta.
