Six people were killed on average every hour in India in hit-and-run incidents reported from 2018 to 2022 at just 18 convictions on average per day, shows official data analysed by News18.
The numbers issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its annual report ‘Crime In India’ show that a total of 2.45 lakh deaths were reported in the country between 2018 and 2022 in hit-and-run cases, while just 33,212 cases reached convictions during the same period.
Hit-and-run is defined as the criminal act of hitting a person or vehicle due to negligence and not stopping afterwards. As per the Cambridge Dictionary, the term means a road accident in which the driver who caused the accident drives away without helping the other people involved and without telling the police.
In 2022, as per the latest NCRB report, almost 140 people were killed per day on average in hit-and-run cases across the country, and the numbers have been consistently on rise since 2020. The year saw just 20 convictions daily on average.
Another report, titled ‘Road Accidents in India’, from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), said that in 2022, a total of 30,486 people were killed in hit-and-run cases.
It is also important to note that the numbers issued by the NCRB, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, differ from MoRTH’s annual report every year. Both reports list the road accidents and various parameters related to it during a calendar year.
While the analysis of the NCRB numbers shows that the average daily hit-and-run deaths in India stood at 135, MoRTH’s numbers show 75 people were killed daily in these cases.
Interestingly, the NCRB reports suggested that 2.45 lakh people were killed in hit-and-run cases between 2018 and 2022. The ‘Road Accidents in India’ report, analysed by News18, showed that the same number of people died in hit-and-run cases between 2013 and 2022. Between 2018 and 2022, 1.37 people were killed on Indian roads in hit-and-run cases as per the MoRTH’s report.
Both these reports claimed that they collect the data from police departments of states and Union Territories on a calendar-year basis.
The NCRB says that it only compiled and collated the data and presented it in the form of a report while MoRTH says that its data is collected in standardised formats as provided by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific under the Asia Pacific Road Accident Database project.
UP, Maharashtra Lead in Hit-and-Run Deaths
As per the report ‘Road Accidents in India’, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have been on the top positions each year in hit-and-run deaths between 2013 and 2022.
Out of the total 2.45 lakh deaths reported between the 10-year period, 60,662 were from the two states alone. So, out of every four hit-and-run deaths reported in India, one was from Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra.
But as per the NCRB report, these numbers were higher. In the five-year period between 2018 and 2022, 2.45 lakh people were killed in India and 96,744 were from these two states – making up for almost one hit-and-run death from these states in three casualties across India.
Over the last few weeks, Maharashtra has reported two high-profile hit-and-run cases. On July 7, Mihir Shah, the 24-year-old son of Rajesh Shah, a member of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction, allegedly rammed a two-wheeler in Worli. The incident resulted in the death of a 45-year-old woman who was riding pillion.
Before that, on May 13, a Porsche car driven by the 17-year-old son of Vishal Agarwal, a prominent real estate developer, hit a bike, killing two IT professionals.
Low Conviction Rate, High Pendency
Despite a consistent rise in the hit-and-run cases across the country, the conviction rate remains low. Even as it has improved in the last few years. Back in 2018, the conviction rate in these cases was just 28% that improved to 47.9% in 2022. Conviction rate is the proportion of cases resulting in a legal declaration of guilt for an offense, against the total number of trials completed.
So that means, out of every 100 cases for trial, only 28 saw convictions in 2018. The number improved to 48 in 2022. As of the latest numbers from 2022, more than 2 lakh hit-and-run cases are pending across the country.
The newly imposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, that replaced the Indian Penal Code, had dropped the section on hit-and-run cases after the government faced nationwide protest against it.
As per the draft of the law, whoever causes the death of any person by rash and negligent driving of vehicle not amounting to culpable homicide, and escapes without reporting it to a police officer or a magistrate soon after the incident, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description of a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine. When the BNS came into force on July 1, this Section 106(2) was deleted.
In 2022, the MoRTH enhanced compensation for victims of hit-and-run motor accidents from Rs 12,500 to Rs 50,000 for grievous hurt and from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh for death.
In November 2023, News18 had reported that 205 compensation claims were filed in 2022-23 for cases related to hit-and-run incidents and only 95 – not even 50% – were settled.
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