The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday charged US national Mathew Aaron VanDyke and six Ukrainians, arrested in March this year, under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, and not the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
His six Ukrainian associates – Hurba Petro, Taras Slyviak, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv, Maksim Honcharuk and Viktor Kaminskyi – were arrested from Delhi and Lucknow airports on the same day. VanDyke was arrested from Kolkata airport by NIA on March 13 under Section 18 of UAPA, which punishes conspiracy, advocacy, abetment, or incitement to commit a terrorist act. But in the charge sheet filed in the court of special judge Prashant Sharma at Rouse Avenue Courts, NIA only charged them under sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, which cover illegal entry and violations of visa conditions.
Already, NIA, which was to file the charges within 90 days, was granted an additional 90 days to file the charge sheet.
In the charge sheet, NIA said it had completed a substantial part of its investigation into the offences committed under the UAPA but needed more time. “Further investigation is under-going and more time is required in order to ascertain and verify the true and complete facts about the commission of offences under UAPA,” the agency said in the charge sheet, seeking permission to continue investigating the alleged conspiracy. “NIA did not find any evidence against the accused even after being granted an additional 90 days for investigation, during which time the accused remained incarcerated on fictitious UAPA charges,” Dandriyal told HT.
