Within four hours of the alleged kidnap and sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl, the Nellore police nabbed a truck driver and rescued the girl near Vedayapalem on the city outskirts in the early hours of Wednesday.

Nellore Rural Deputy Superintendent of Police Y. Harinadha Reddy said the Nellore North traffic police after a hot chase nabbed the lorry driver.

The lorry driver was booked under IPC Section 376 (rape) read with IPC 511 (commiting offences punishable with life imprisonment and section 8 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) by the Sangam police.

In view of the lockdown, the girl, accompanied by her paternal uncle, had boarded the truck at Singarayakonda in Prakasam district to go to her grandmother's house at Bodigadithota here reportedly after a tiff with her father and step-mother.

The lorry driver after loading some consignment from a company at Marripadu asked the girl’s uncle to make enquiries at a motel on the way. Without waiting for the latter's return, the truck driver drove away the vehicle and allegedly sexually assaulted the girl.

Based on a complaint from the girl’s uncle, the Sangam police alerted all the checkposts in the district and they coordinated with each and other nabbed the truck driver on the Chennai-Kolkata highway on the city outkskirts.