The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested seven foreign nationals – six Ukrainian nationals and one from the United States – on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India.
The arrests, made in a coordinated operation by multiple NIA teams last week, were made under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with other relevant sections.
An FIR in the case was registered on Friday evening. The US national was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at Kolkata airport, and three Ukrainians each were detained at airports in Lucknow and Delhi.
A source said that the accused had entered India on valid visas, but had proceeded to Mizoram without the mandatory Restricted Area Permit.
“From there, they crossed into Myanmar, where they reportedly met ethnic groups hostile to India. Investigations also uncovered that multiple consignments of drones from Europe were delivered by them in Mizoram,” the source said.
The suspects were brought to Delhi and produced before the duty Magistrate on Saturday, who remanded them in three days’ custody. The suspects were remanded again on Monday until March 27, an extension of 11 days.
The NIA has alleged that the group was plotting terror strikes, and their movements had raised alarm over cross-border threats.
“The aspects of collection of evidence, unearthing criminal conspiracy, identification of co-accused persons and analysis of mobile data of accused persons, are such that police custody of accused persons is justified,” Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma of Patiala House Court said in his order.
According to the NIA, the accused were involved in illegally “importing huge consignments of drones from Europe to Myanmar via India” for the use of “Ethnic armed groups”. These groups were allegedly also supporting some proscribed “Indian Insurgent Groups by way of supplying weapons and other terrorist hardware and training them”.
The NIA, which was represented by SPP Rahul Tyagi, PP Anil Dabas, and advocates Jatin and Amit Rohilla, sought the remand of the accused persons to “collect more evidence to unearth the overall conspiracy of the present case hatched by the accused persons and their accomplices”.
They also submitted before the court that they wanted to “unearth the route opted” by the accused persons. The custody was also sought to analyse the mobile data to ascertain the alleged source of funding.
The NIA also submitted that it wanted to “apprehend the close unknown associates still at large who are likely to surface after technical analysis of the social media accounts”.
