Delhi court grants default bail to 6 Ukrainians in Myanmar drone training camp case
A Delhi court on Wednesday granted default bail to six Ukrainian nationals arrested in a case being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) involving an alleged drone-warfare training camp linked to ethnic armed groups in Myanmar.
Special NIA Judge Prashant Sharma granted bail to the six on a cash bond of Rs 1 lakh each.
The court also discharged them under Sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, after taking note of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office's (FRRO) compounding of the alleged offences.
The FRRO had earlier compounded the offences by imposing a fine of Rs 5.5 lakh on each of the accused.
Ukrainian nationals Petro Hurba, Taras Slyviak and Ivan Sukmanovskyi were arrested at Lucknow airport on March 13, while Marian Stefankiv, Maksim Honcharuk and Viktor Kaminskyi were arrested at Delhi airport the same day.
The agency had alleged that the six were operating as mercenaries.
The case also involves US national Matthew Aaron Van Dyke, whose bail conditions were modified by the court on Wednesday. He was granted default bail on September 18 on furnishing a personal bond and surety bonds of Rs 1 lakh each.
The court on Wednesday directed that only a cash bond of Rs 1 lakh be furnished. Van Dyke's plea seeking permission to return to the United States will be heard on Friday.
The NIA had initially registered the case against the six Ukrainians and Van Dyke under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), relating to punishment for conspiracy, along with provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The agency had obtained an extension to investigate the alleged UAPA offences for 180 days. However, in its first chargesheet filed on September 8, the NIA invoked provisions of the Immigration and Foreigners Act while stating that its probe into the alleged UAPA offences was continuing.
The agency said the UAPA investigation had been kept pending and that a supplementary chargesheet could be filed if an offence under the anti-terror law was established.
The NIA had also told the court that a substantial part of the further investigation into the alleged UAPA offences had been 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 investigated for an alleged wider terror conspiracy involving 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 Myanmar's military junta.
