A home guard jawan from Dhanbad, Shankar Rai, alias Chamakan Singh, was on Thursday sent to jail by police in connection with the rape of a teenager from Uttar Pradesh at Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) about a month ago.

The police recorded the girl’s statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code and conducted a medical examination before sending Rai to jail.

A medical examination of the girl at PMCH had also indicated rape.

The 18-year-old girl from Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, reached Dhanbad before the lockdown and was admitted to PMCH by some unidentified people after being found lying hurt beside a road.

She was subsequently sent to a Dhansar-based rehabilitation centre at PMCH last month.

The incident came to light on Sunday when a video clipping showing her levelling charges of rape against the home guard jawan went viral.

An investigation into the incident was launched by the Dhanbad police as per the instruction of senior superintendent of police Akhilesh B. Verior under the supervision of DSP (law and order) Mukesh Kumar.

The DSP during the course of the investigation first took the statement of the victim while visiting the rehabilitation centre at Dhansar. He later also took the statements of the three nurses at PMCH as well a ward boy from whose mobile phone the video of girl accusing the home guard jawan was taken, all of whom gave statements against the accused.

The nurses told the police that they saw the girl descending the stairs from the hospital terrace while accusing the home guard jawan of raping her. She was followed by the constable who was clearly nervous. He denied the charges. The ward boy shot the girl’s video.

Although the home guard jawan in the initial police interrogation claimed that he went to the terrace only to search for the girl as she not doing well, based on the statements of the PMCH nurses and ward boy and also based on the medical examination of the girl and her statement, he was sent to jail.

DSP Mukesh Kumar said: “We arrested the accused on the basis of statement of the victims and other witnesses, besides the medical examination reports of the girl.”