A 48-year-old man was arrested from Outer Delhi Sunday for allegedly selling Chinese manjha (kite strings). Police said the accused, Ashok Kumar, is a Nihal Vihar resident and tea shop owner.
Police said that in accordance with directions to take action against Chinese manjha sellers – sale of which is banned – patrols were being carried out. Two policemen had then noticed the illegal kite strings inside a shop around 4 pm Thursday. Police said the shop was then raided, and 170 bundles of the banned kite strings were recovered.
Sameer Sharma, DCP (Outer), said, “A case has been filed under IPC section 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant), and the Environment Protection Act sections 7 (persons carrying out operations not to allow discharge of excess pollutants) and 15 (penalty for contravening provisions of the Act).
Police said the accused was hard up and allegedly sold the manjha to earn more money.
So far, five deaths have been reported due to injuries caused by the glass-coated kite string, which gets tangled around people’s neck and even vehicles, in the capital. On Sunday, a 26-year-old businessman died after his neck was slit by a Chinese manjha in Shahdara.
Earlier this week, a 35-year-old man on a bike was killed after a Chinese manjha cut his neck at Shastri Park flyover. A 28-year-old food delivery executive died after he fell off his bike and was mowed down by an unknown vehicle on Badarpur flyover. Police said they found a Chinese manjha stuck to his two-wheeler and suspect this led to the accident. In July, a 30-year-old man died after his throat was slit due to kite string on the Haiderpur flyover. Another incident took place in Keshavpuram.
Police have also made multiple arrests of shopkeepers selling these banned kite strings.
