NIA Drops UAPA Charges Against US National, 6 Ukrainians In Myanmar Case

The National Investigation Agency has dropped UAPA provisions against six Ukrainians and one US national arrested for allegedly training anti-India ethnic armed groups in Myanmar. In a chargesheet filed Tuesday before a special NIA court in Delhi, the agency invoked only Sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.

Special Public Prosecutor Rahul Tyagi informed the court that the agency had not invoked any UAPA section in this chargesheet. He added that the UAPA investigation has been kept open for further probe. The agency may file a supplementary chargesheet if it later makes out an offence under the Act. The two Immigration and Foreigners Act provisions are compoundable and can be handled at the Foreigners Regional Registration Office.

Arrests And Charges

The accused are Matthew Aaron VanDyke, a US national, and Ukrainian nationals Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor. Earlier, the NIA had booked and arrested them under Section 18 of the UAPA, along with other provisions. That section covers conspiracy for terrorist activity and the running of terror camps.

VanDyke was detained at Kolkata airport in March, while the six Ukrainians were picked up at airports in Delhi and Lucknow.

Training In Myanmar

The NIA told the court that the seven foreign nationals entered Mizoram without authorisation before going on to Myanmar. There, they allegedly trained Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs). Those EAGs were viewed as supportive of terrorist organisations active in India and hostile to the Myanmar junta. They were said to have received “pre-scheduled training” in drone warfare, drone operations, and assembly and jamming technology.

Investigation And Defence

The case also moved, over the course of the probe, to allegations that VanDyke and others assembled equipment and tried to target a passenger flight in Myanmar, according to the NIA. It further alleged that during their early custody, the accused made “important disclosures” tied to the “conspiracy,” including being in “direct touch” with terrorists “carrying AK-47 rifles.”

In the chargesheet, the NIA included material taken from phones seized from the accused. Those devices were sent to CERT-IN, the nodal agency for cybersecurity threats, for forensic examination.

VanDyke’s lawyer criticised the agency’s case after the chargesheet was filed. “NIA accused my client of hatching a conspiracy inimical to India’s national security and after a period of six months, they have filed a chargesheet saying they didn’t find evidence to charge him under UA(P)A,” advocate Rohit Dandriyal told The Print. “This approach raises fingers on the investigation of the NIA.”

Lawyer Nitin Saluja, who appeared for the Ukrainian nationals, told the court he had been arguing that his clients were innocent. He said the NIA’s decision not to charge them under the UAPA proved his point.

A few days earlier, VanDyke’s family had appealed to the Donald Trump administration to step in diplomatically and seek his release. “This is a humanitarian emergency for our family,” Sharon VanDyke said in a statement released on X. “Matthew has spent his life documenting human suffering and supporting people in crisis. He is innocent, and we are pleading with the United States government to bring him home safely.”