The special NIA court at Rouse Avenue, Delhi has allowed American citizen Matthew Aaron VanDyke and six Ukrainian citizens arrested in the alleged Myanmar training camp case to return to their country for a month.
According to news agency ANI, the court on Thursday allowed the seven accused to go to their country under certain conditions and formalities.
On Thursday night itself, Matthew Aaron VanDyke was released from Tihar Jail in Delhi and left for his country.
According to Bar & Bench, a portal covering legal matters, Special NIA Judge Prashant Sharma gave this order on September 24, when all the seven accused had already got default bail on September 18.
The NIA had failed to complete its investigation within the stipulated time and file a charge sheet under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
US national Matthew Aaron VanDyke and six Ukrainian nationals were arrested by the NIA in March 2026. The Ukrainian nationals are named Hruba Petro, Slivyak Taras, Ivan Suchmanovsky, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maxim and Kaminsky Victor.
An FIR was registered against him under Section 18 of UAPA. He was accused of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities.
On September 18, when the accused were granted default bail, Mathew's lawyer Rohit Dandriyal, while talking to news agency ANI, expressed hope that his client would be out of jail 'soon.'
Advocate Rohit Dandriyal had said, "The court clearly said that now my client has the right to get bail, because he has been in jail for more than 180 days. NIA has not filed the charge sheet in the UAPA case. Under this Act, it is mandatory to file the charge sheet within 180 days."
According to the Economic Times, the court has ordered the accused to return to India after the expiry of the one month period and give information to the court within 72 hours.
According to Bar & Bench, the seven accused, including American citizen Matthew Aaron VanDyke, were accused of entering Mizoram without valid permits and then crossing the border illegally and reached Myanmar. There the group allegedly provided drone warfare training to ethnic armed groups fighting the Myanmar military government.
Initially a case was registered in this matter under Section 18 of UAPA. However, in the first charge sheet filed in the case, the NI only mentioned violation of the provisions of the Immigration and Foreigners Act. Later the NIA clarified that terrorism-related charges against the accused have not been dropped.
Congress leader Pawan Kheda accused American pressure on the Modi government at the Center regarding the release of the accused. He said, "A person comes to our country posing as a tourist with his team. He crosses the border from Mizoram to Myanmar, trains militants there, comes back and is arrested. And suddenly he is being released? Ask Modi, how much more will you surrender to America?"
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, in a long post on
International affairs expert Brahma Chellani has raised questions on the release of foreign nationals. "India has always been a soft state," he wrote in a post on X. "India has always been a soft state. The decision to quietly allow US intelligence operative Matthew VanDyke and six Ukrainian drone experts to leave India is not limited to overturning a legal decision in a single case."
