American citizen Matthew Aaron VanDyke, whom the National Investigation Agency (NIA) charged with violating the Immigration and Foreigners Act this month, has paid ₹ 5.5 lakh as compounding charges to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Delhi before moving an application seeking his discharge, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.
His lawyers, Rohit Gour and Rohit Dandriyal, will move a court with the discharge application. The six Ukrainians, Hurba Petro, Taras Slyviak, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv, Maksim Honcharuk and Viktor Kaminskyi, were arrested at Delhi and Lucknow airports the same day. VanDyke was arrested under terror charges on March 13 along with six Ukrainian nationals for allegedly training ethnic armed groups in Myanmar. The NIA maintained on September 9 that it is continuing its probe under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) charges against VanDyke, who last week got bail. VanDyke was arrested at Kolkata airport under section 18 of UAPA, which relates to conspiracy, advocacy, abetment or incitement to commit a terrorist act.
The judge, who granted the bail, said the agency had invoked “piecemeal” charges of sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act rather than the more serious UAPA section 18 The court barred VanDyke from travelling outside Delhi without permission.
