Father, son join UP Police together in rare feat after 2 years of joint preparation

In what stands out as a rare joint achievement, a 41-year-old retired Army havildar and his 21-year-old son have been appointed together as constables in Uttar Pradesh Police during the state’s biggest-ever police recruitment drive.

Among the 60,000 candidates who received appointment letters from Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow this week were Yashpal Singh, a former Army havildar from Hapur, and his son, Shekhar Nagar.

According to a report by The Times of India, Yashpal, who took voluntary retirement from the Army in 2019 after 16 years of service, had initially planned to ease into civilian life. He briefly worked with the Army Ordnance Corps in Delhi before settling into a slower pace at home. Around the same time, Shekhar, just out of school at 18, was beginning to prepare for a career in the police.


It was during casual family conversations that an unusual plan began to form—Yashpal wouldn’t just guide his son, he would appear for the same exam. The two enrolled in the same coaching centre in Delhi-NCR and prepared side by side for over two years. They studied the same syllabus, appeared for the same mock tests, and endured exam delays together.

Speaking to ToI, Shekhar recalled the initial awkwardness: “In the beginning, it was very awkward for me to sit in the same class with my dad, but slowly I got over it.”

Their skills proved complementary—Yashpal excelled at general knowledge and discipline, while Shekhar helped his father with logical reasoning and numerical sections. Now, both are set to begin their training—Yashpal in Shahjahanpur and Shekhar in Bareilly.