High Court’s order gives a lease of life to spy’s family

Ahmedabad, April 05 Agent was allegedly with RAW and is lodged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail
For almost 14 years there had been no official communication of any kind. No salaries paid, no allowances given, even the existence not acknowledged. For the family of the forty-five year old Kuldip Kumar Yadav, allegedly engaged by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and last heard to be in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, all efforts to bring back their son had proved futile.
So, when on Friday, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court hearing a special civil application filed by Mayadevi Yadav, Kuldip's mother ordered that the Home, External Affairs and Defence ministries together pay her Rs 5 lakh as interim compensation, for the first time in many years it brought back hope in the family.
"It is the first significant thing that has happened for my brothers since he was caught. Till now nobody was even willing to talk, but now the High Court has stepped in. Something will happen now," says Dilip Kumar Yadav, Kuldip's brother and a head constable in the BSF.
Kuldip's mother, who is visiting relatives in Dehradun could not be reached. His father who had been running from pillar to post for information about his son, died in 1999. Since then it has been Mayadevi who has kept the struggle on.
Kuldip was caught in Pakistan in 1994. After a 30-month interrogation, a court there sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment for 'spying.' His family in Ahmedabad first came to know about him in 1997 when a letter written by him reached home.
Dilip says, "I think he joined an intelligence agency sometime in 1989 for after that he became very secretive about his job. He used to come home once a year or even less. In fact so secretive he was that we came to know about his job only after he was caught in Pakistan."
Kishor Paul, who is fighting Kuldip's case says, "We are pleading that the Centre makes efforts to bring him back. Even the Indian High Commission has acknowledged his presence at the Kot Lakhpat Jail. The Centre should have kept paying his family his salary and other perks but it has not been done."
The High Court's order is based on a similar case where the Delhi High Court had ordered interim compensation to the family of a person caught in Pakistan.
For more than two years now —the time that has elapsed since Kuldip's last letter, there has been no news from the other side. Friday's High Court order has now rekindled thoughts of his return in the family. As Dilip says, "Ummeed jag gaye hai."
The High Court's order is based on a similar case where the Delhi High Court had ordered interim compensation to the family of a person caught in Pakistan.
Saurav Kumar
Posted online: Sunday , April 06, 2008 at 02:38:16Updated: Sunday , April 06, 2008 at 02:38:16
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