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A very important and sensational news related to the national security agencies of India is coming out. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made its position very clear in a major case related to the country’s internal security and sovereignty of borders. The charges under the stringent Anti-Terrorism Act, i.e. ‘UAPA’, against an American citizen and six Ukrainian citizens who had infiltrated into India illegally and suspiciously, have not been dropped, rather they remain completely intact. In this high-profile case, even though the NIA has just filed its first charge sheet in the court under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, the investigating agency has made it clear that further investigation is still going on in full swing to get to the bottom of this entire matter and the sections of UAPA can be further strengthened through a supplementary charge sheet in the coming days. Let us know in detail what is the whole truth behind this much talked about international infiltration case and in which direction the NIA’s action is moving.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed its first official charge sheet under sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act (IFA) against these seven foreign accused in the court of Special Judge Prashant Sharma. According to information received from agency sources, 180 days of judicial custody of all these foreign nationals were to be completed on September 8. If the charge sheet was not filed in the court by the agency within the legal deadline, then these accused would have been in danger of getting ‘default bail’ i.e. automatic bail under the statutory provisions. Since strong evidence of their illegal entry and crime under the Foreigners Act had already emerged, the NIA took the strategic step of filing this first charge sheet just before the expiry of the deadline to avoid legal complications and deny the accused the benefit of bail.
In this case, when there was no direct mention of UAPA sections in the initial charge sheet, confusion spread in the media and legal circles that perhaps serious terrorism-related charges had been dropped against these foreign nationals. However, completely removing this confusion, senior government and agency sources have clarified that the absence of UAPA sections in the initial document of the charge sheet does not mean that serious allegations of terrorism have ended or the investigation on this angle has been closed. As per the rules of the Indian criminal justice system, further detailed investigation can be continued in any case even after the first charge sheet is filed. As new digital evidence, foreign funding trails and other links emerge during the investigation, the NIA will formally add tougher charges under the UAPA by filing a supplementary charge sheet in the court.
This entire serious matter dates back to March 13 this year, when the National Investigation Agency arrested an American citizen Matthew Aaron Van Dyke and six Ukrainian citizens—Kamiyansky Victor, Hrba Petro, Slivyak Taras, Ivan Suchmanovsky, Stefankiev Marian and Goncharuk Maxim. According to the revelations of the investigating agencies so far, all these seven foreign nationals had entered the Indian border through Myanmar in a very secret and illegal manner. After this, these people were caught at domestic airports while traveling to different parts of the country. Indian security and intelligence agencies are deeply suspicious that this entire international gang may be active in India or neighboring countries as ‘mercenaries’ or covert military activities. Sensing this serious threat, initially the NIA had registered a case against them under stringent sections of UAPA and Indian Justice Code (BNS).
When an American citizen was arrested in this high-profile case, US diplomats and the embassy reacted and demanded legal assistance. Talking about this diplomatic intervention, NIA sources clarified that this entire process is a part of a normal and established international diplomatic process. Just as if an Indian citizen is caught in any country in the world, the Indian Embassy there demands consular access and legal assistance, in the same way, under the rules of the Vienna Convention, foreign citizens also have the right to meet the diplomats of their country. This diplomatic formality does not at all mean that there will be any compromise on the criminal seriousness of the case or aspects related to national security. NIA is investigating this matter with utmost diligence to find out what were the real and dangerous intentions of these foreign nationals to enter India.