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

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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.

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  Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More