Myanmar training camp case: Week after dodging UAPA in NIA chargesheet, US national moves court for bail

Matthew VanDyke and 6 Ukrainian nationals have been charged under Sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, pertaining to illegal entry and visa violations.

New Delhi: US national Matthew VanDyke, who is among seven foreigners arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges of crossing over to Myanmar to train Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups, has approached a special court in Delhi seeking bail in the case. This comes a week after NIA filed a chargesheet against him and the six Ukrainian nationals under Immigration and Foreigners Act, without invoking Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

VanDyke has moved the court seeking relief, citing his detention beyond 180 days and not being charged under the provisions of UAPA, 1967.

The court has sought a response from the NIA on the bail plea.

The seven accused—VanDyke, Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor—were arrested earlier this year from different locations by NIA, which had taken up the case on orders of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. However, none of them were charged under UAPA in the first chargesheet filed by the agency last week.

Instead, they were charged under Sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025—both compoundable offences at the level of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, pertaining to illegal entry and visa violations.

All seven of them have been lodged at Delhi’s Tihar jail since arrest.

In its chargesheet, NIA alleged that the seven men entered India on valid documents in December last year, and crossed the border into Myanmar via Guwahati and Mizoram, without obtaining the mandatory Protected Area Permit (PAP) or Restricted Area Permit (RAP) as mandated under immigration rules.

According to the agency, they finally reached Victoria Camp, which has been functioning as the military headquarters of the rebel army in Myanmar over the last few years. There, NIA alleged, this group organised pre-scheduled training for Ethnic Armed Groups in drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology before returning to India in the first week of March. However, they were intercepted at different airports before they could fly out of India.

The agency has said that the probe in the aspect of their training and ethnic armed groups inimical to India remains ongoing, and that a supplementary chargesheet will cover such offences if there is enough evidence to press terror charges.

“A substantial part of the further investigation with respect to the offences committed under UA(P) Act, 1967 has been completed. Further investigation is underway and more time is required to ascertain and verify the true and complete facts about the commission of offences under UA(P)A in view of import and recovery of huge quantity of drones and accessories through India and seizure of huge number of digital devices whose scrutiny is underway,” the agency said in its chargesheet, scheduled for court’s consideration on 1 October.

Appearing for VanDyke before the court, his team of counsel—advocates Rohit Dandriyal and Rohit Gour—slammed the NIA, saying that the divergence between the agency’s allegations at the time of arrest and those in remand and chargesheet pointed a finger at the agency’s approach.

Earlier, sources in the NIA had told ThePrint that the investigation conducted so far had not led to any evidence supporting allegations that they had imparted training to ethnic armed groups working against India till the date of the filing of the chargesheet. Hence, they were not charged under the UAPA, officials had said.

(Edited by Mannat Chugh)