Three held for selling banned nylon kite string

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

The crime branch has arrested a trio for selling the banned and hazardous nylon kite string (nylon manjha) used for kite flying. A case has been registered against the accused at Satara police station, and they have been remanded to judicial custody at Harsul Central Jail. During the operation, the police seized 289 spools of nylon manjha valued at over Rs 2.16 lakhs.

The arrested accused have been identified as Sanket Kanade (26, Galli No. 1, Pundliknagar), Govind Salunke (19, Galli No. 3, New Hanuman nagar), and Tushar Kathar (22, House No. 510, Avishkar Colony). According to senior police inspector Gajanan Kalyankar of the crime branch, the action was taken on the orders of police commissioner Pravin Pawar as part of a drive against the sale and use of nylon manjha. Acting on specific information received by sub-inspector Arjun Kadam that Sanket Kanade was selling nylon manjha, a team comprising head constables Rajendra Salunke, Shrikant Kale, Manohar Gite, Jalinder Gore, Abhishek Bathe, Pratik Sabale, Rohit Jadhav, among others, detained him. During interrogation, Kanade led the police to a godown in the Satara area, from where 144 spools of nylon manjha were seized. Based on further information, 97 spools were recovered from Govind Salunke’s residence, while 48 spools were seized from Tushar Kathar. The investigation revealed that Govind and Tushar had procured the spools for resale from the main accused, Santosh Kanade. A case has been registered against all three at Satara police station. Further investigation is being carried out by assistant police inspector Shailesh Deshmukh.

--------

Social media connection proves costly

Police said that Sanket Kanade had previously been booked in a nylon manjha-related offence. He had ordered the banned string online and roped in his friend Govind Shelke to sell it. Tushar Kathar came into contact with Sanket Kanade through Instagram, following which they decided to sell nylon manjha. Kathar works a part-time job and is also involved in seasonal businesses such as firecracker sales. He holds an engineering degree, police added.