A five-year-old boy from Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja has been appointed child constable on Thursday after the death of his father, a police officer, in a road accident.

Raj Kumar Rajwade, who was a police officer posted in Mahila Thana, died in a road accident. Following the incident, the Superintendent of Police (SP) Bhavna Pandey said that his 5-year-old son, Naman Rajwade, will take over his position.

Naman, a UKG student, has been posted as a child constable on compassionate grounds in Sarguja, a district in Ambikapur’s Chhattisgarh.

Speaking about Naman’s posting, his mother Nitu Rajwade said that her husband died in an accident. Now, his son has been appointed as the child constable. She said she is hurt a bit but is happy for her child.

The decision to appoint Naman as a child constable was taken as per the guidelines by the administration and police headquarters.

According to the guidelines of the Police Headquarters, in such a case, if someone below 18 years is present in the family, he is appointed as a child constable. Under this, Naman Rajwade has been appointed as a child constable.

Earlier in January too, a similar incident took place in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur when a five-and-a-half-year-old boy was made a child constable after he lost his father. Furthermore, a four-year-old boy in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, was appointed as a child constable after his father’s demise who was a head constable in the police force.

Child constables will be appointed as full time constables on attaining the age of 18 years.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from his membership as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Lok Sabha after his conviction and subsequent two-year prison sentence in a 2019 defamation case by a court in Gujarat’s Surat city yesterday.

A notification issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat today informed that the former Congress president has been disqualified from Lok Sabha membership under the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) and Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 with effect from March 23, 2023.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat notification reads: “Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 23 March, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.”

Rahul Gandhi represented the Wayanad constituency seat, which has now also been declared vacant by the Lok Sabha secretariat after his disqualification from the House. The Election Commission can now announce a special election for the Wayanad seat. The Congress scion now has a month vacate his official residence as the order on his disqualification as an MP is marked to the Liaison Officer, Directorate of Estates, and Parliament Annexe.

According to Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, any member of parliament who is convicted of a crime and sentenced for at least two years is bound for disqualification.

In a landmark judgement on July 10, 2013 in the Lily Thomas v. Union of India case (along with Lok Prahari v. Union of India), the Supreme Court ruled that any Member of Parliament (MP), Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) or Member of a Legislative Council (MLC), convicted of a crime and handed a minimum two-year imprisonment sentence, loses membership of the House with immediate effect.

Reacting to Gandhi’s disqualification, Congress claimed that it was a ‘conspiracy’ to silence Gandhi who had been very vocal in his questioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ties with Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani.

Fugitive Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh may be headed for Delhi, a day after his last known location was traced to Haryana, reports quoting sources have claimed.

An NDTV report quoting sources said the security has been heightened across the national capital as its suspected that the notorious ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief may be headed to Delhi after last being spotted in Shahabad in Haryana’s Kurukshetra.

On Sunday, Amritpal Singh and his associate Papalpreet Singh, had stayed at Shahabad home of a woman identified as Baljeet Kaur, who was arrested yesterday, Punjab Police said.

A video with a time stamp of Monday, doing the rounds on the internet yesterday showed the fugitive Sikh preacher dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans, trying to hide his face with an umbrella as he was departing from the Baljeet Kaur’s house in Shahabad.

On Thursday, the Punjab Police arrested Amritpal Singh’s former gunman and notorious associate, Tejinder Singh aka Gorkha Baba.

A report quoted DSP Payal Harsimrat Singh of the Punjab Police as saying that Tejinder Singh, a resident of Punjab’s Mangewal village, was nabbed by the Khanna police.

DSP Harsimrat said Tejinder, who was a gunman for Amritpal Singh for a long period and often lived with the Waris Punjab De chief, is also involved in the Ajnala case. The officer said that Tejinder, also known as Gorkha Baba, was very active on social media and often posts pictures of himself brandishing different weapons due to which he’s wanted in a separate case registered against him at Malaud police station.

The official further said that Tejinder has been booked under sections 107/151 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and two other aides who accompanied him, have also been taken into custody and are being questioned.

A nation-wide crackdown was launched to nab Amritpal Singh after last month, the dreaded Khalistani leader and his supporters armed with swords and guns, stormed a police station in Ajnala on the outskirts of Amritsar city and clashed with police for the release of one of his aides Lovepreet Singh.