One of The Quint's employees, Mansi Dwivedi, was driving her scooty a little slower than usual, when, upon reaching Noida's Maharaja Agrasen Marg, she felt something strange around her neck – like a rope was tugging on her.
Soon after the initial feeling, Mansi felt like something was slitting her throat, and she immediately stopped her vehicle in panic.
Amidst the chaos, another bike rammed into her scooty, and Mansi found out that a manjha was entwined around her neck.
In 2017, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) completely banned the production, storage, and sale of Chinese manjha – the glass-coated synthetic string, used largely for kite-flying – in the national capital region.
"My neck was bleeding, and the plain was indescribable. I tried to break the manjha but I couldn't do it. Eventually, I used my bike keys to cut the Chinese manjha," Mansi told The Quint.
5 People Killed by Chinese Manjha in 2022
Over the course of this year, Chinese manjha has been the cause of five deaths in the country.
More recently, a 26-year-old businessman died after his neck was allegedly slit by a manjha in Shahdara's Mansarovar Park area on 14 August, news agency PTI quoted the police as saying.
The deceased, Abhishek Kumar, ran a tent business. The police added that four people had so far been killed in a similar manner this year.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram said:
"We received a PCR call at around 2.51 pm about the incident and were told that a man's neck was slit by a manjha (glass-coated thread). Within seconds, blood started oozing out from his neck and he fell from the vehicle. A passer-by stopped and tried to help the victim."
Kumar was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors said he was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before he succumbed to the injury.
A case was registered in the matter.
326 Arrested Over Sale of Chinese Manjha
Meanwhile, as per another PTI report, the police arrested five shopkeepers from northeast Delhi, after they were found with nearly 600 rolls of the banned kite string on 16 August.
In another raid, 20 cones of strings were recovered from the shop of Mohammad Daud (26) in Jafarabad and 364 cones were recovered from his residence at Yamuna Vihar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain reportedly said.
As per the police, a total of 17,535 rolls of Chinese manjha have been seized in a period of one year (between 16 August 2021 & 16 August 2022), and a total of 326 people have been arrested over similar incidents so far.
As many as 327 cases pertaining to Chinese manjha have been registered, the police added.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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