Three held over online sale of Chinese manjha in Delhi

New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) The Delhi Police has busted a racket involved in online sale of banned Chinese manjha and arrested three people, officials said on Saturday.

The accused have been identified as Ali Hasan (36), Harsh Vardhan Khatri (28), residents of Faridabad in Haryana, and Ritik Kumar Chaurasia (24), a resident of Madanpur Khadar, they said.

The accused were using social media sites and a webpage named MONO KITE for the illegal trade. A total of 201 rolls of Chinese manjha were recovered from them, police said.

According to the police, they got a tip-off about illegal sale and purchase of nylon-based banned Chinese manjha in Madanpur Khadar.

A trap was laid and Chaurasia was nabbed. During the search of his shop, 16 rolls of Chinese manjha were recovered, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said.

At the instance of Chaurasia, Khatri was apprehended from Faridabad and 69 rolls of Chinese manjha were recovered from his possession. He was selling these banned strings through online as well as offline mode, Yadav said.

Later, Hasan was also arrested and 116 rolls of Chinese manjha were recovered from his house.

Khatri is tech savvy and he had posted many pictures of Chinese manjha and kite flying videos on social media. He created a webpage 'MONO KITE' and the purchasers used to contact him using the mobile number posted by him on social media platforms, police said.

Hasan was the main source of manjha-supplying network and he was supplying the banned string in Faridabad, Gurugram, Delhi/NCR etc., police added.

In 2017, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned Chinese manjha in the national capital as it posed a risk to people and animals by cutting through their skin.

In February this year, the Delhi High Court directed the crime branch of the city police to investigate the manufacturing, sale, purchase and storage of Chinese synthetic manjha, used for kite flying, in markets and shops here. PTI NIT CK