Maharashtra ATS gets nod for DNA test on accused arrested under UAPA

The ATS claimed that Kamble was also known with the aliases Rohit, Laptop, Madhu and Sunil Chandrakant Jagtap.

A special court on January 3 permitted the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to make an accused undergo a DNA test to establish his identity.

Prashant Jalindar Kamble, arrested in May 2025, on charges of being a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), had told the court that while there was no need for a DNA test as he was not disputing his identity, he gave a go-ahead to the test “in the interest of administration of justice”. Kamble was allegedly living with the identity of “Sunil Jagtap sir”, working with children in the tribal areas of Khalapur in Raigad district, at the time of his arrest in 2025.

Kamble was arrested in a case filed by the ATS in 2011 and faces charges, including those under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The ATS claimed that Kamble was also known with the aliases Rohit, Laptop, Madhu and Sunil Chandrakant Jagtap. The state agency claimed that Kamble had often concealed his identity and used different names. It alleged that false documents were also made on these identities, including an Aadhaar card mentioning his name as Jagtap.

The court said that while Kamble has admitted his identity as Prashant Jalindar Kamble, he has not admitted his identity to be Sunil Chandrakant Jagtap.

“…to establish that by these two names, the person is the same, scientific evidence would help. Even otherwise, if according to this accused, they are two different persons, the DNA test would help his defence,” special judge CS Baviskar said.

“If one person poses himself to be another by taking a different name and prepares even false Government documents in that different name and does so not once but many times, certainly the identity of that person has to be established by cogent and satisfactory evidence. Particularly when that person is accused of various serious offences, the task of the investigating agency to establish his identity is quite difficult. One of the best methods to establish identity is the DNA test of the disputed person,” the court said.

It said that biological samples for the purpose of DNA analysis can be drawn of Kamble, who is presently lodged at Mumbai Central Prison (Arthur Road jail), “by following all due provisions of all the applicable Acts”.

In the 2011 case, the ATS had arrested members of the cultural group, Kabir Kala Manch. The ATS claimed that the group was a “frontal organisation” of CPI (Maoist). Kamble was arrested in 2025, with the ATS alleging that he was on the run for 15 years, while he lived with various assumed identities.