Exclusive | Seven foreigners held: Court agrees with NIA, says need to probe drone objective and rebel link

“What all infrastructure was used by accused persons while visiting India and beyond? Such questions, and questions of like nature, need investigation. I am in agreement with NIA,” he said.

The NIA, which was represented by special public prosecutor Rahul Tyagi, public prosecutors Kushdeep Gaur and Anil Dabas and advocates Amit Rohilla and Jatin, told the court that the possibility of the accused being linked to ethnic rebel groups in India “could not be ruled out”.

The judge said, “There are aspects which NIA has apprised this court through case diaries, which are sensitive information, which this court cannot divulge here. Said information justifies filing of present application,”

The foreign nationals – Matthew Aaron Van Dyke of the US and Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor of Ukraine – were arrested on March 13. While the US national was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at Kolkata airport, three Ukrainians were detained at Lucknow airport and another three at Delhi airport.

The NIA registered an FIR the same day under Section 18 (punishment for being part of a terrorist conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), among others.

According to the FIR, the accused persons had entered India on tourist visas on separate dates, and had flown to Guwahati. From Guwahati, they had allegedly travelled to Mizoram without the requisite documents. They had then allegedly crossed the border illegally into Myanmar with the intention of carrying out a “pre-scheduled training for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs)”,according to the NIA.

Multiple consignments of drones from Europe were delivered by the accused to individuals and groups in Mizoram, the NIA said.

On Friday, the agency told the judge that data from the mobile phones of the accused were being analysed and that their disclosure statements were on record.

According to the NIA, the accused told interrogators they were in “direct touch and abetted” in “illegal activities by unknown terrorists carrying AK 47 rifles”.

On the other hand, the counsel of the accused persons told the judge that the NIA had all the material with it needed to complete the investigation and that crossing Mizoram and going to Myanmar by itself did not amount to an offence under the UAPA.

The counsel said no drone had been recovered from the accused and that they were not linked to any ethnic armed group in India.

While legal aid counsel Piyush Sachdeva appeared for the US national, the Ukrainians were represented by advocates Nitin Saluja, Shivani Luthra Lohiya, Anubhav Singh, Ishita Soni, Garima Singh, Pranyya Madan and Bhupender Singh.

Tyagi is also handling other sensitive NIA cases as Special Public Prosecutor, including the Popular Front of India case, gangster Arshdeep Dalla’s case, gangster Anmol Bishnoi’s case and the ISIS module cases.