Teen catching kite dies of shock as Chinese manjha touches high-tension wire

Meerut: A 15-year-old boy died of electrocution after the Chinese manjha attached to a kite he was trying to grab came in contact with a high-tension power line in Amardeep Colony, Saharanpur, police said on Sunday.
Tushar Dhamija, also a resident of Saharanpur, had come to his aunt's house when the incident occurred. "On Saturday evening, he went to the terrace to catch a kite tied to a Chinese manjha entangled in the wires connected to an electric pole. As soon as he grabbed the string, he received a strong electric shock, and his clothes caught fire. He suffered severe burns and fell unconscious. A neighbour spotted him and alerted others," said Satish Kumar, a local.
Tushar was taken to the district hospital and later referred to AIIMS Rishikesh, where he succumbed to the injuries later that night after being put on a ventilator. The police said no official report about the incident was received at the police station.
On the same day, police arrested two men and recovered 350 spools of the banned thread in a crackdown on its illegal sale. Police said the accused sold the manjha for Rs 1,000 per spool, earning a 50% profit. Saharanpur (city) SP Vyom Bindal said that Chinese manjha, coated with pulverised glass and metal dust, is a conductor of electricity, making it highly dangerous.
Bindal said, "Despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal and UP govt, it is illegally sold and used. A drive is underway to crack down on the illegal sale and storage of Chinese manjha. We arrested two men from the Mandi police station area in Saharanpur and seized 350 spools worth nearly Rs 4 lakh. During interrogation, they confessed to supplying Chinese manjha in Meerut, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and NCR."