The man was heading to buy straw for a water cooler.A 19-year-old man died after his throat was cut by a stray kite’s string in north Delhi’s Timarpur Monday. The man’s family claimed a Chinese manjha had inflicted the fatal injury, but police are still investigating the matter.
The man, Ravi Kishore, worked at Badli Industrial Area in a factory that manufactured bike spare parts. He lived with his parents, three brothers and sister in Timarpur’s Yograj Colony. His father Ram Kishore said, “It was getting hot and I sent my son to buy some straw so we could start using the water cooler. I was told later a kite string cut his neck.”
According to police, passersby noticed Ravi’s bike lying on the road in Nirankari Colony. The first respondents took him to BJRM Hospital, while a PCR call was made to police. He died during treatment.
Following the cremation, tempers flared as his brother Govind alleged, “People keep asking me if it was the Chinese manjha. Please tell me if there is any other kite string which can cut a man’s throat.”
Chinese manjha had been banned in 2016, after a spate of deaths and injuries to birds due to the use of the glass-coated string. A Delhi government notification had ordered “a complete ban on the sale, production, storage, supply and use of nylon, plastic and Chinese manjha and other kite-flying thread that is made out of glass, metal or sharp objects”. In the aftermath of the incident, the north district police said local police have been deputed to check the sale of the glass-coated kite string.
As Ravi’s sister wept, his mother said: “We were looking for a bride for him. This is no way to go.”
