Cleared of Pakistan spy charge, man is set to be UP judge | India News

KANPUR: In a cul-de-sac of Kanpur’s Rajendra Mohal stands a small jewellery workshop where a man in his 60s is busy putting a batch of gold samples through chemical tests to ascertain their purity. One of the walls bears a framed photograph of the shop owner’s late father Jagdish Prasad, who was an additional district judge in UP.
Jagdish Prasad’s six children studied law, but only one of them – Pradeep Kumar – completed his LLB.
Standing outside his workshop, Sanjay Kumar talks about his 49-year-old law graduate brother with a sense of pride and joy that is tempered by the thought of what he and the family have been through over the past two decades.
Pradeep passed the judicial equivalent of the purity test recently when Allahabad HC “honourably acquitted” him of the charge of spying for Pakistan.
The acquittal paved the way for his appointment as an additional district judge in UP by Jan 15, bringing to a close an ordeal that started in 2002.
“We endured a tough time, but justice has prevailed. He (Pradeep) never gave up hope. The stain on our family has been cleansed. I wish our father were alive to witness his youngest son fulfilling his dream of becoming a judge,” said Sanjay, the second of the six siblings.
Sanjay’s grandfather, Sukhdev Ram, had moved to Kanpur’s Kotwali neighbourhood to master the craft of carving gold, but the latter’s son, Jagdish, chose to pursue an LLB degree.
After practising law for a decade, he cleared the UP judicial exam to become a judge. Jagdish served in several districts, including Deoria and Hamirpur.
“Pradeep was as determined as our father to become a judge. Who could have imagined he would be framed in an espionage case that would stall his career before it could take off? But he never gave up,” Sanjay said.
In June 2002, Pradeep was an unemployed law graduate when a special police taskforce and Military Intelligence arrested him on suspicion of spying for Pakistan and charged him with sedition, criminal conspiracy and violating Official Secrets Act.
He was accused of passing sensitive information, such as the names of Army units and officers of Kanpur Cantonment, to a person identified as Faizan Illahi, who used to run a photocopy shop, in exchange for Rs 18,000. During the lengthy trial, neither Military Intelligence nor the police could establish the charges.
After being acquitted by a district court in Kanpur in 2014, Pradeep cleared the UP PCS (J) exam in 2016-17, ranking 27th on the merit list. “But his candidature was presumably rejected because he had been accused of spying. We suspect a neighbour of ours framed him,” said Sanjay.
The HC acquittal came on Dec 6, after which Pradeep left UP with his wife and their four-year-old daughter.
Allahabad HC has fined state govt Rs 10 lakh for “indifferent attitude” and “tardiness” in acting on its recommendation regarding Pradeep’s appointment in 2017.