Hyderabad: Secunderabad zone police arrested 10 people for indulging in the illegal sale of Chinese manja and seized 163 bobbins of the banned kite string, worth 1.8 lakh, from their possession.Acting on specific alerts, personnel from the Kacheguda, Domalguda and Amberpet police stations conducted searches at houses where the synthetic string, which poses a threat to humans and birds, was being illegally stocked.Kacheguda police raided the house of businessman Nomula Santosh Kumar at Mothi Market in Kacheguda on Thursday. Police seized 51 bobbins of manja from the house and arrested Santosh and his mother, Pushpa. Based on their confession, police raided the houses of manja supplier Lalith Singh of Dhoolpet, and manja sellers Kashiram Singh of Dhoolpet and Om Prakash Singh of Mangalhat, seizing 56 bobbins. Their associate and sixth accused, Kapil, is absconding. Investigators said the prime supplier, Lalith Singh, procured the manja from a Delhi-based seller and had earlier been booked under the NDPS Act in Hyderabad and East Godavari.Domalguda police nabbed four students near the NTR Stadium with eight bobbins of manja on Thursday, which had been supplied to them by a friend, Prashanth, for resale. Another accomplice, Shiva Raj, is absconding. Amberpet police seized 48 bobbins from a seller, K Sunil Kumar of Jummerat Bazar, while his associates, Charan and Rajesh, are absconding.All the accused have been booked under Sections 223 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant) and 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the BNS, and Sections 5 and 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act.
