A school van driver was arrested late on Sunday night for allegedly raping a Class V student of a Jamshedpur school since October last year and threatening to grope her sister too if she opened her mouth.

Suresh Rajak (30) was rounded up from Saptam Mohalla, an urban slum barely 2km from the victim's home in Sonari, after the minor girl, who is in chronic pain and suffering from incontinence as a result of repeated physical assault, finally confided in a doctor.

Rajak, who is married and has a three-year-old son, has been charged under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC and Section 4/6 (intimidation for sexual assault) of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. He was presented before a judicial magistrate on Monday and sent to Ghaghidih Central Jail. If proven guilty of the crime, he can be sentenced to life in prison.

Sonari thana OC Suman Anand said they received a formal complaint from the child's parents and lodged an FIR around 10pm on Sunday. "We took immediate action and arrested the accused from his house in the urban slum."

According to the FIR, Rajak had been ferrying the victim and her younger sister - an LKG student - to and from their Sonari campus in his own van for a year now. At least 10 more children travelled in the same van, but Rajak ensured that the two sisters were the last to get dropped at their Kagalnagar home.

"The child has said that he (Rajak) took her to an isolated spot almost every day after school for the past six-seven months to molest and assault her. He even threatened her to keep her mouth shut or else he would torment her sister too. She sustained internal injuries and infection in her private parts. She complained of acute pain and often wet the bed, prompting her parents to seek medical help," OC Anand said.

The girl finally broke down and narrated her ordeal when the doctor quizzed her about her injuries. "My daughter was hurting since October last year, but we took her to a gynaecologist only two days ago when she complained of acute pain in her lower abdomen. The doctor helped her come out with the truth," the aggrieved mother told police.

After the accused was arrested on Sunday night, the girl's furious father, a local businessman, went on a punching spree at Sonari thana until Rajak dodged a blow and the man fractured his hand because it hit the wall.

OC Anand said they understood the father's emotions and didn't lodge any case against him for assaulting an accused in custody.

Fraud cuffs

One Tabrez Khan was arrested from Sakchi market in Jamshedpur on Monday for swindling at least a dozen of unemployed youths out of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of getting them jobs in the Gulf.

Azadnagar thana OC Anjani Kumar Singh said that a case had been registered against Khan at his police station.