US national Mathew Vandyke appears before Delhi court in Myanmar arms training case

US national Mathew VanDyke, who was allowed to return to his home country for a month, returned to India and appeared before a Delhi court on Friday, people familiar with the development said.The court had directed VanDyke, in an order last month, to appear before it within 72 hours of returning to India, one of the persons said. “He is currently completing formalities in the court,” the person said, requesting anonymity.The six Ukrainian nationals arrested along with VanDyke on March 13, however, have not returned to India.Last month, a Delhi court allowed VanDyke and the six Ukrainian nationals to return to their respective countries on the condition that they would rejoin the investigation.

The seven were arrested in March under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) subsequently dropped in its chargesheet filed in September.In the chargesheet, the NIA charged the seven accused only under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, an offence that can be compounded. VanDyke paid the compounding fees for the alleged violations under the Act and was granted default bail by the court last month.The agency had said last month that its investigation under the UAPA was continuing.The six Ukrainians are Hurba Petro, Taras Slyviak, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv, Maksim Honcharuk and Viktor Kaminskyi.The NIA had earlier alleged that the seven accused illegally entered Myanmar through Mizoram without valid travel documents and participated in a pre-scheduled training programme for ethnic armed groups operating in Myanmar that were fighting the country's military junta.According to the agency, the seven imparted training in drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology to members of Myanmar-based ethnic armed groups, including the Chin National Front (CNF) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), over nearly three months.The NIA also alleged that VanDyke and the others received logistical support from CNF members and that the mission was financed through funds arranged by a commander of a Myanmar-based rebel group.