Port Blair, Apr 15 (PTI) A Port Blair court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of a 24-year-old US national who was arrested for allegedly entering a prohibited area in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and extended his judicial custody.

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov will be produced before the sessions court here again on April 17.

After hearing from the public prosecutor and the defence lawyer, the sessions judge rejected the bail prayer of Polyakov who was charged with entering a prohibited tribal reserve area of the North Sentinel Island and arrested on March 31.

After his three-day police custody ended, he was remanded to judicial custody. Polyakov had arrived in Port Blair, the capital of the archipelago, on March 26.

He left for North Sentinel Island, where entry of any person without authorisation is prohibited, from Kurma Dera beach near Port Blair in a boat on March 29, carrying a coconut and a can of cola as “offerings for the Sentinelese”.

The US national reached the northeastern shore of North Sentinel Island by 10 am and surveyed the area using binoculars but did not see any inhabitants. He remained offshore for around an hour and blew a whistle to attract attention but received no response, an officer had said.

Polyakov then briefly landed on the island for five minutes, left some offerings on the beach, collected sand samples and recorded a video before returning to his boat, the officer said.

Around 1 pm, he started his return journey and reached Kurma Dera beach by 7 pm where he was spotted by local fishermen, he said.

An FIR was registered against Polyakov under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Amendment Regulation, 2012.

The Sentinelese, who inhabit the North Sentinel Island, are designated as a particularly vulnerable tribal group. They belong to the broader class of Andamanese people. They are hostile to outsiders and have killed people who approached or landed on the island.

American missionary John Chau was killed in November 2018 when he attempted to contact the Sentinelese, considered the world’s last pre-Neolithic tribe. PTI SN SN NN