Manja slits throat, biker gets 24 stitches

A youth from Kolathur, who was riding his two-wheeler, suffered severe injuries after a manja thread got entangled on his neck in Vyasarpadi. Doctors had to put 24 stiches on the injury, after which the victim was shifted to a private hospital, said police sources.

Police said that the victim Lokesh Kumar of Kolathur was returning home from a film last Thursday when the incident took place. “When he crossed Dr Ambedkar Arts and Science College on his bike, he came in contact with a manja thread flying in the air and his neck was slit. Lokesh collapsed on the road with bleeding injuries,” a police officer said.

Lokesh’s friends who accompanied him rushed him to Stanley Medical College Hospital where he had 24 stitches. While he was discharged from the hospital, Lokesh suffered bleeding on Sunday and has been admitted to a private hospital again. Lokesh’s mother Lakshmi said that he had recently quit his job was looking for another job. 

Based on Lokesh’s complaint, the Otteri police registered a case and secured two persons for using manja thread. Naveenkumar (18) of Kannigapuram has been remanded in judicial custody, while the other, a minor, has been sent to an observation home in the city. 

Manja, which has a mixture of broken glass pieces, has cost a number of lives in the past after which the Madras High Court banned its use. Despite the ban, some kite enthusiasts continue to use it illegally. The deadly thread had caused at least 18 accidents between 2012 and 2015 and claimed four lives. In 2017, a 40-year-old techie C Siva Prakasham died after a manja kite thread slit his throat in Maduravoyal bypass road.

Recently, an awareness programme on the perils of using manja thread to fly kites was conducted for the youth and the parents by the Greater Chennai Police, but use of the dangerous thread has not been completely eradicated.