In another tragedy due to the dreaded glass-coated kite string, a 22-year-old man died in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut after the string slit his throat while he was riding a bike. The victim, Suhail, and his friend Nawajish, were returning after shopping when the incident occurred. Nawajish, who was riding pillion, suffered serious injuries. Ironically, the two had bought glass-coated kite strings that police recovered from a box attached to the bike.
Glass- or nylon-coated strings, better known as Chinese manjha, are known to cause fatal accidents like this and have been banned. But they continue to be sold illegally and used widely.
According to reports, Suhail and Nawajish enjoyed flying kites and went to a market last evening to buy strings. On their way back, tragedy struck. A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered against an unidentified accused.
In the aftermath of the tragic incident, Meerut police cracked down on shops still selling Chinese manjha and took three businessmen into custody. Three sacks full of Chinese manjha have been seized. In another raid, two people were arrested and three sacks full of the manjha were seized.
The Meerut incident comes days after a biker in Haridwar died in an accident caused by Chinese manjha. Forty-year-old Ashok Kumar was returning home from work when a kite-string got entangled around his neck and damaged his windpipe. Earlier, similar deaths have occurred in various parts of the country, but the use of the dreaded kite-string continues.
With the kite-flying season approaching, police in several districts of Uttar Pradesh have stepped up the crackdown against Chinese Manjha. After the Haridwar death, police recovered 170 cartons of Chinese manjha. But repeated accidents suggest that more needs to be done to curb this menace.
