Security breach: NIA custody of 7 foreign nationals extended

A Delhi court on Friday extended by 10 days the NIA custody of seven foreign nationals, including six Ukrainians, accused of breaching national security.

NIA special judge Prashant Sharma, who conducted the proceedings in the agency’s headquarters here, directed the production of the accused persons after completion of their custodial interrogation on April 6.

Earlier in the day, the judge allowed the agency’s plea seeking holding the judicial proceedings at its headquarters against six Ukrainians and a US national, noting that the case pertained to breach of national security and the investigation is highly sensitive with global ramifications.

On March 16, the court had allowed 11-day NIA custody of the accused, identified as US national Matthew Aaron Van Dyke and Ukrainian nationals Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor.

Court sources said the foreign nationals on Friday moved a plea seeking an independent translator for fair judicial proceedings.

In the remand application on March 16, the investigation officer, citing the FIR, said that some Ukrainians had entered India on tourist visas on separate dates and flew to Guwahati, from where they travelled to Mizoram without obtaining the requisite documents, such as the Restricted Area Permit or Protected Area Permit.

Thereafter, these individuals illegally entered Myanmar to impart pre-scheduled training for Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAO) in that country, the officer had said. In its order allowing NIA custody, the court said the allegations made in the FIR should not be appreciated in a piecemeal manner.

“No doubt the FIR in question talks about the accused persons travelling to Mizoram, which is a prohibited area, without permission and thereafter crossing over to Myanmar illegally. But it also mentions that the accused persons, linked to Ethnic Armed Organisations (in Myanmar), are (also) supporting certain proscribed Indian insurgent groups by supplying weapons and terrorist hardware and imparting training to them,” the order said.

It said these allegations definitely involved national security and the country’s interests, and broadly attract Section 18 (punishment for conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA.