New Delhi: A special court in Delhi Wednesday granted default bail to all six Ukrainian nationals arrested earlier this year by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges of crossing over to Myanmar to train ethnic armed groups. They have been given bail on a personal cash bond of Rs 1 lakh each.
Additionally, the court has discharged all of them from the offences under the Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025. The discharge from the immigration offences has come on the back of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) compounding the offences under sections 21 and 23 of the Act earlier last week.
The FRRO had slapped a penalty of Rs 5.5 lakh on each of the foreign nationals accused of violating visa conditions and crossing into Myanmar without a valid restricted area permit, as mandated by the immigration rules. Their counsel, Nitin Saluja, had earlier moved the plea for discharge since the offences under the Immigration Act were compounded by the FRRO.
Special Judge Prashant Sharma, however, observed during the bail hearing of the US national Matthew VanDyke that all other co-accused were on a similar legal footing and were entitled to default bail if they filed their pleas. VanDyke was granted bail last week, but with stringent conditions—not leaving the jurisdiction of the trial court without its permission and furnishing bail and surety bonds of Rs 1 lakh each.
His counsels, Rohit Dandriyala and Rohit Gour, moved a plea before the court seeking exemption from filing a surety bond, which was be allowed on Wednesday. VanDyke’s plea on travelling back home is scheduled for consideration on Friday.
The six Ukrainian nationals—Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor—were arrested from different airports and locations by the NIA in March.
The NIA had arrested all seven foreign nationals under the provisions of the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967. However, they did not invoke the Act in the chargesheet filed earlier this month. They were charged only under Sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025—both compoundable offences at the level of the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer, pertaining to illegal entry and visa violations.
Special Public Prosecutor for the agency, Rahul Tyagi, had earlier informed the court that the investigations of terror charges are still ongoing and those charges may come in a supplementary chargesheet.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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