Delhi Police in action to nab Chinese Manjha sellers; over 20 arrested
Jul 30, 2022
New Delhi [India], July 30 : The Delhi Police have arrested more than 20 people for selling Chinese Manjha in the national capital, it informed on Saturday.
The police is conducting regular raids in the parts of Delhi, days after a 30-year-old motorcyclist's throat was cut slit due to one such Kite string on the Haiderpur flyover in northwest Delhi on Monday (July 25).
According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer Delhi), Sameer Sharma, their special team have so far registered 11 FIR, arrested 11 people, and recovered 59 rolls of illegal Chinese Manjha.
The Police is also seen conducting a special drive to nab the sellers of these banned Chinese Manjha in Southern Delhi. So far, they have arrested seven people and have recovered at least 95 rolls of Chinese kite strings from their possession.
In a huge raid at a Godown in North-west Delhi, the police have arrested a person named Amarjeet and recovered 11,760 rolls of plastic kite strings from 205 cartons, here.
"Amarjeet is a big trader of Manjha who used to sell it to his customers using code words, usually at the evening or night time," Usha Rangnani, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North West Delhi said.
During police interrogation, he revealed that he had purchased the aforesaid quantity of Manjha from a Noida-based dealer, who had received around 400 cartons of kite string from Surat (Gujarat). The dealer used it to supply the manjha from a godown that he had taken on rent, police said quoting Amarjeet.
Four people have also been arrested from the Banka region of Delhi's Dwarka along with 41 rolls of banned kite strings, an investigation led by the Dwarka north and Dabra Police Station region revealed.
In view of the increasing incidents of injuries caused due to the Chinese Manjha, often during the July end and August start, the Delhi Police started conducting special drives (from Thursday) to make people aware of the stringent actions that can be taken against the people selling 'banned' Manjha and to encourage people to adhere to the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
In 2017, the NGT imposed a complete ban on the production, storage, and sale of Chinese manjha as it not only possess a threat to birds and humans but also causes harm to the environment.
It had further announced that the ban would also apply to the nylon, Chinese and cotton manjha coated with glass.
Chinese Manjha is a glass-coated kite string, that has been blamed for several deaths and serious injuries to those travelling on two-wheelers in the past as well.
As kite flying is observed the most by July end and August starting, the number of incidents involving Chinese manjha often remain highest in this duration.
