Delhi court grants 11-day NIA custody of six arrested Ukranians, US national

Officials said that the accused had allegedly infiltrated into India from Myanmar via the Mizoram border before being intercepted at various domestic airports.

New Delhi: Observing that criminal conspiracy is hatched in secrecy, a Delhi court has granted the NIA 11-day custody of six Ukrainians and one US national accused of training Myanmar-based Ethnics Armed Groups (EAGs), known to support insurgent groups in India.

The accused had allegedly infiltrated into India from Myanmar via the Mizoram border before being intercepted at various domestic airports, officials said.

Special Judge Prashant Sharma, on Monday (March 16), took note of the submission by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that it needed to interrogate the accused to unearth the larger conspiracy.

The agency stated that quizzing the accused and analysis of data on devices recovered from them was necessary to obtain further evidence, trace the mastermind and source of funding, ascertain the route taken by them and apprehend their unknown associates.

Noting that the FIR is not an encyclopedia and the allegations cannot be read in piecemeal, the judge said, "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 the accused persons link with ethnic armed groups, supporting certain proscribed Indian insurgent groups by supplying weapons, terrorist hardware and training."

"Ordinarily, courts are not supposed to interfere with the investigation, unless the situation is otherwise... procedural laws are handmaid to justice," the judge said, adding that, "Criminal conspiracy is hatched in secrecy and not in broad daylight."

The special judge sent US citizen Matthew Aaron Van Dyke and Ukraine nationals Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor to NIA's custody till March 27 and ordered their medical examination after every 48 hours.

The court noted that the allegations levelled against the accused concerned national security and the country's interests, and broadly attracted Section 18 (conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

"In such circumstances, the filing of the present application (seeking remand) has got basis. It cannot be dismissed on the threshold," the court said.

It noted that in the remand application, the investigation officer (IO) cited the FIR, according to which, 14 Ukraine nationals had entered India on tourist visa on separate dates and flew to Guwahati and subsequently travelled to Mizoram without requisite documents such as Restricted Area Permit (RAP) and Protected Area Permit (PAP), before illegally entering Myanmar to conduct a pre-scheduled training for EAGs.

It noted that the Bureau of Immigration detained one US national at Kolkata airport, three Ukranian nationals at Lucknow airport and three others at Delhi airport, and their questioning confirmed that they had travelled to Mizoram without requisite documents, from where they entered Myanmar illegally and conducted training for EAGs, besides illegally importing huge consignments of drones from Europe to Myanmar via India for these insurgent groups.

"These EAGs are also known to be supporting some proscribed Indian insurgent groups by supplying weapons and other terrorist hardware and training them, thus affecting national security and the interests of India," the court noted.

Granting custody of the accused to the NIA, the special judge said, "At this stage of the investigation, I have no grounds to have suspicion over the manner in which the FIR is registered or the manner in which the investigation is being done."

The aspects of collection of evidence, unearthing criminal conspiracy, identification of co-accused and analysis of mobile data of accused warranted NIA custody for the accused persons, the court held.

It further noted that all constitutional and statutory requirements were observed while arresting the accused, and the grounds of arrest were communicated to them in English as well as in their native language in writing, and acknowledgement was received.