The Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) on Tuesday charged US national Mathew Aaron VanDyke and 6 Ukrainians, arrested in March this 12 months, underneath the Immigration and Foreigners Act, and never the Illegal Actions Prevention Act (UAPA).
VanDyke was arrested from Kolkata airport by NIA on March 13 underneath Part 18 of UAPA, which punishes conspiracy, advocacy, abetment, or incitement to commit a terrorist act. His six Ukrainian associates – Hurba Petro, Taras Slyviak, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv, Maksim Honcharuk and Viktor Kaminskyi – have been arrested from Delhi and Lucknow airports on the identical day.
However within the cost sheet filed within the court docket of particular decide Prashant Sharma at Rouse Avenue Courts, NIA solely charged them underneath sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, which cowl unlawful entry and violations of visa circumstances.
NIA stated the accused violated the circumstances of their Indian visas by coming into the notified Protected Space with out the requisite allow and subsequently crossing the India-Myanmar border by means of unauthorised factors. The 2 offences carry a punishment of as much as 5 and three years in jail, respectively.
“Now we have filed a cost sheet in opposition to seven accused underneath the Immigration and Foreigners Act. The probe has been stored open in all different facets, together with the UAPA costs,” Rahul Tyagi, NIA’s particular public prosecutor informed HT.
VanDyke, based on his web site, is from Baltimore and has labored as a soldier, worldwide businessman, battle correspondent, columnist and worldwide businessman. He claims to be a veteran of the Libyan revolution, a former prisoner of battle there and the founding father of a navy contracting agency — SOLI (Sons of Liberty Worldwide).
Within the cost sheet, NIA stated it had accomplished a considerable a part of its investigation into the offences dedicated underneath the UAPA however wanted extra time. Already, NIA, which was to file the costs inside 90 days, was granted an extra 90 days to file the cost sheet.
“Additional investigation is under-going and extra time is required so as to verify and confirm the true and full info concerning the fee of offences underneath UAPA,” the company stated within the cost sheet, looking for permission to proceed investigating the alleged conspiracy.
NIA claimed it wanted to additional probe the import and restoration of a giant amount of drones and equipment by means of India and the seizure of a number of digital gadgets, “which can point out their doable involvement in acts affecting/threatening the unity, integrity, safety and sovereignty of India”.
An NIA spokesperson didn’t touch upon the developments.
Advocate Rohit Dandriyal, who’s representing Van Dyke, stated the NIA was investigating faux terror costs.
“NIA didn’t discover any proof in opposition to the accused even after being granted an extra 90 days for investigation, throughout which period the accused remained incarcerated on fictitious UAPA costs,” Dandriyal informed HT.
Myanmar coaching mission
In response to NIA, the seven entered India on legitimate journey paperwork in December 2025 however later travelled to Guwahati and Mizoram with out acquiring the obligatory Protected Space Allow (PAP) or Restricted Space Allow (RAP).
The company alleged that they illegally crossed into Myanmar to succeed in Victoria Camp, the place they have been allegedly to conduct pre-scheduled coaching for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Teams in drone warfare, drone operations, meeting and jamming expertise.The company stated the accused returned to India from Myanmar round March 5, 2026.
NIA claimed that a few of these teams had hyperlinks with rebel organisations in India.
Six taxis, Tiau river route
In response to the cost sheet, six taxis have been employed by means of a automobile rental firm catering to foreigners to move the accused from Guwahati into Mizoram’s Protected Space. They allegedly halted for a number of hours earlier than crossing into Myanmar by means of the Tiau river route and reached Victoria Camp on December 29, 2025.
NIA stated two individuals, Abika and Viktor/Kima, allegedly organized the logistics for the border crossing.
NIA claimed that the alleged journey was not merely an immigration violation however shaped a part of “a bigger conspiracy involving Indian rebel teams, notably these energetic within the northeastern states”.