A month on, Police fail to arrest killer driver of Lucknow’s hit and run case of Dolly Srivastava

• Dolly Srivastava, a resident of Lucknow, passed away on June 16,2016 after being hit by a speeding vehicle
• FIR had been launched against the unknown violators, immediately
• Till now, no fruitful action has been taken by the authorities to find and arrest the killers of Dolly Srivastava

Dolly Srivastava, 55, a resident of Lucknow's tony residential locality, Gomti Nagar, lost her life after being hit by a speeding small goods carrier near her home on June 16, 2016. It has been a month since the fatal accident, but thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the local police, the killer vehicle, and its reckless driver are still at large.

According to the eyewitnesses, she was standing close to her residence gate in the morning when the vehicle, that was loaded with empty vegetable trays, came on the wrong side, hit and ran away. The victim was grievously injured in the mishap and succumbed to her injuries on the spot. A FIR under Sections 279 and 304A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, against unknown persons, was lodged at the Gomti Nagar police station.

It has been Srivastava who has been suggesting them crucial leads in a hope that the police being the law-keeper would be able to bring the killer to book. He shared the CCTV footage with the police to ascertain the number plate of the said vehicle from the forensic lab. Unfortunately, the number provided by the lab and the vehicle caught by the police didn't match; the colour of the vehicle nabbed by the police was green while the one as shown in the footage was creme and green. He then requested the police to interrogate local vendors of the nearby wholesale vegetable and fruits markets, and even provided a list of such small goods carriers procured by him from the Regional Transport Office, and a list of CNG run vehicles from the makers, JSA, who are based in Kanpur. "But nothing has happened as far as the interrogation of the shortlisted vehicle owners and vegetable vendors are concerned. I am calling the police officers daily to know the progress in the case. But it has been a futile exercise so far. If the police had launched a serious manhunt based on these leads, the culprit would have surely been behind bars by now," said Srivastava, dejected with the tardy pace of police investigation.

Another neighbour raised a pertinent question: "If ordinary citizens have to do what the police is supposed to be doing, then what good does it serve to have them around us in the first place?" Even after so much being handed over to them to make their task of investigation easier, the police has chosen to stay indifferent to the family's plea to arrest the reckless driver and confiscate his vehicle, fearing that both must be moving on the city's roads with impunity.

The family is bereaved at the untimely loss of a dear one and feels that if the authorities do not act promptly and swiftly to arrest the culprit, God forbid, he may hit another person and still stay scot-free.

The other concern raised by Srivastava include bringing back speed breakers as mandated by the law in the residential areas. "It may to some extent check speed limits of vehicles and, in turn, reduce road crash tragedies in residential areas," he said.

An invaluable piece of advice: If the state government is serious about curbing the fatalities on its roads, streets, and highways, it must take act now to show that it cares for its people. The state government, its traffic police, and state transport department should take a cue from the West Bengal government that has launched the "Safe Drive, Save Life" campaign with a focus on saving lives on the road by maintaining road culture, sensible driving, road safety, and caring for all road users.

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