Monkey-man of Delhi

The Monkey-man of Delhi

Monkey-man of Delhi

By Jerry "Jaybird" King

The appearance of Monkey man in Old Delhi is the centre-point of the 2009 Bollywood Hindi film Delhi-6 directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. In the film, the creature, called in Hindi as "Kala Bandar (Black Monkey)" is used as an allegory to represent the evil that resides inside every man alongside God (virtue). The real creature known as simply the monkey man has never actually been photographed or his image caught on tape.

In May 2001, reports began to circulate in the Indian capital New Delhi of a strange monkey-like creature that was appearing at night and attacking people. Eyewitness accounts were often inconsistent, but tended to describe the creature as about four feet (120 cm) tall, covered in thick black hair, with a metal helmet, metal claws, glowing red eyes and three buttons on its chest. Others have described it as a bandaged figure or as a helmeted thing. Theories on the nature of the Monkey Man ranged from an Avatar of the Hindu god Hanuman, to an Indian version of Bigfoot. Many people reported being scratched, and two (by some reports, three) people even died when they leapt from the tops of buildings or fell down stairwells in a panic caused by what they thought was the attacker.

At one point, exasperated police even issued artist's impression drawings in an attempt to catch the creature. The entire incident has been described as an example of mass hysteria.

On 13 May 2001, 15 people suffered injuries ranging from bruises to bites and scratches. Residents carrying sticks and torch-lights maintained vigil all through Thursday night in several parts of the capital fearing an attack by the elusive 'monkey man', even as the police launched a crack-down on rumour mongers and mischief-makers. The police received over 100 distress calls, mostly bogus, from all over Delhi as mass hysteria gripped the metropolis with people beating up innocent passers-by suspecting them to be the 'monkey man.' Only three out of the 10 "victims" of attacks by the 'monkey man' on Thursday night were taken to hospitals.

"While in one place police found a monkey, at another place people trapped a dog mistaking him for the monkey man," Joint Commissioner Police (southern range) Amod Kanth said. Meanwhile, the police have arrested five persons, including a doctor, on charges of spreading rumours. The police commissioner has announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 to any person providing information about the 'monkey man.' Ruling out the involvement of any animal in the attacks, Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi range) Suresh Roy said that in all probability it is all the handiwork of some mischief mongers. "We will be able to sort this out quickly," he said. The fear-psychosis has already claimed two lives in the capital. One person jumped to death in the Shakarpur area of north-west Delhi on Wednesday night following a false alarm raised by his neighbour, while a pregnant woman fell and died while rushing out in panic in the Anand Vihar area of east Delhi earlier this week after she heard of an attack by the 'monkey man.'

On 15 May 2001, a pregnant woman fell down some stairs fleeing after neighbors shouted that they had seen the Monkey Man. A 4-foot-tall (1.2 m) wandering Hindu sadhu was beaten up by an angry mob who mistook him for the Monkey Man. After lying low for a day, the mysterious 'monkey-man' struck again in Delhi on Wednesday night leaving at least eight people injured. Casuality Medical Officer at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Dr Banarsi Das Gautam, said eight people, including two with serious injuries, have been brought to the hospital from Delhi (east). Six of them with minor injuries were discharged after first aid, while two are still under observation.

The Delhi police on Thursday constituted a crack team to nab the elusive 'monkey man', even as it struck again on Wednesday night and left eight people injured. The city police has also sought additional Central forces to deal with the menace and is contemplating action against bogus callers. After lying low for day, the mystery creature struck north-east Delhi on Wednesday and left seven people injured. In western, central and north-west Delhi, 11 calls were received and one person was injured in Shakurpur, when he fell down while running in panic after sighting the 'monkey man', Joint Commissioner of Police (north) Ajay Chadha said.

On 18 May 2001, a van driver was set upon and sustained multiple fractures in another case of mistaken identification as Monkey Man. Personnel of the Delhi and armed police laid a virtual siege on east and north-east Delhi to nab the "mystery creature", suspected to be a wild animal, as it struck at about 50 places on Monday night, injuring 16 people, causing panic among residents and baffling authorities. Several companies of the Delhi Armed Police have been deployed with district police forces and personnel have been positioned on rooftops in vulnerable areas to catch the "creature", which struck at over 65 places in Delhi since Saturday, Joint Commissioner of Police Suresh Roy told PTI. He said 29 distress calls were received from north-east Delhi since Monday night, of which 12 attacks were confirmed, while none were confirmed out of the 17 calls from east Delhi. The "creature", which usually scratches and bites its victims sleeping on rooftops, struck at two places at Gokulpuri early Tuesday, while in Ashok Nagar, a pregnant women fell down from the staircase apparently out of fear. Roy said the doctors have said the bite marks of a victim appeared to be caused by an animal and the case has been referred to veterinary doctors for verification. Police have also started registering cases of trespassing, attacking and causing injury against the "creature", which had spread terror in neighbouring Ghaziabad town of Uttar Pradesh over the last two months. The short, dark and hairy creature with human legs and an ape-like face, scratches and even bites people sleeping on their roof-tops, injuring them on their heads and hands and disappearing as soon as people try to catch it.

As the police turned 'pro-active', intensifying patrolling and picketing, the elusive 'monkey man', which has terrorised residents of east and north-east Delhi, lay low on Tuesday night, amid rumours about it being spotted in other parts of the capital. Twenty-five calls about fighting the 'monkey man' were received from north-east and east Delhi, all of which were found to be "hoaxes", Joint Commissioner of Police Suresh Roy said. The mysterious creature has struck at 65 places in Delhi since Saturday and terrorised residents in neighbouring Ghaziabad town of UP for over a month. District police, along with personnel of the Delhi Armed Police, home guards and members of the civil defence patrolled affected areas throughout the night, while pickets at all entry roads to the city kept an eye on inbound vehicles, he said. Police in south, west, and south-west districts received calls about attacks by the 'monkey man', which were found to be bogus, DCP South Kamraj said. In west Delhi, DCP Kewal Singh said that three fake calls were received and in one case, a 16-year-old girl's finger was found bitten, apparently by a rat while she was asleep at Nangloi. Meanwhile, the Delhi zoo authorities Wednesday ruled out that the "mystery figure" which has terrorised several parts of the capital and neighbouring areas could be an animal, as suspected by some police officials. "It cannot be a monkey as suspected, because they do not have the height attributed to the attacker by eye witnesses," director of the National Zoological Gardens B S Bonal told PTI. On whether it could be an ape, he said, "That species is not available in this part of the country. They are available only in north-east India." Bonal, whose opinion on the "man-monkey" was sought by the city police, also dismissed the possibility of any other animal spreading terror. "Animals do not attack without provocation and moreover, when confronted, they do not disappear. Rather, they resist and fight back," he said. The zoo director said Delhi Police has not sought the help of veterinary doctors or other zoo experts so far. Bonal said he suspected that some mischievous elements were behind the bizarre incidents. Joint Commissioner of Police Suresh Roy had said dentists have stated that the bite marks on one of the victims belonged to "some animal" and not a "human being".

Hanuman

Mass hysteria grips Delhi
Doc held as monkey-man fear mounts
Syed Ali Ahmed

New Delhi, May 18
The Ministry of Home Affairs and Lieut-Governor of Delhi today called a meeting of senior police officers to discuss the law and order situation in the Capital after the mysterious monkey-man’s attack claiming two lives.

Sources said the meeting was called to find whether it was monkey-man or a mischief monger who had created a fear psychosis among residents of the Capital. In the scare of the monkey-man has engulfed the entire Capital.

While the crack team of the Delhi police constituted yesterday was busy in search of the creature, residents of Preet Vihar in East Delhi turned violent last night. They beat up a man, Om Prakash, thinking him to be the monkey-man.

Momin, a resident of Khureji, was arrested in this case.

According to the sources, while Om Prakash was going with his friends Ram Singh, Sanjay and Tarun Oberio towards Khureji in a jeep, their vehicle was stopped by the residents who were patrolling the area in search of the mysterious attacker. While Om Prakash was caught, his friends managed to escape under the cover of darkness.

The residents beat Om Prakash as they suspected him to be the monkey-man. He received severe injuries and has been admitted to a hospital.

The police also arrested a doctor working with the ESI hospital in Noida, Nagender, from the Shakarpur area of East Delhi for creating a panic by throwing a hand glove on the street.

However, residents of the Capital, particularly of qhettos, are in a state of panic due to the mysterious attacks. Carrying sticks and torchlights, they maintained vigil all through last night in several parts of the Capital fearing an attack by the elusive monkey-man.

An official of the Delhi police said that police received a total of 80 calls from all over the Capital. Of them, only 10 were found to be true.

The injured were taken to hospital from where they were discharged after the first aid.

A 23-year-old woman received injuries after falling from a terrace, but the monkey-man was not involved in the case.

Further sightings were reported in Kanpur in February 2002 and New Delhi in July 2002, the latter describing a monkey-like machine that sparkled red and blue lights. In August 2002, villagers on the outskirts of Lucknow were attacked by a muhnochwa(face scratcher). The creature was alleged to appear at night, emit light and scratch the face of its victim. Some people reported it to be a large insect while others said it was a UFO. Like in the case of the monkey man, the actual victim who was attacked by the monster could not be located. Most of the victims were injured because of mad scrambles caused by panic. One alleged muhnochwawas caught in Lakhimpur Kheri, but after studying it, professors at the zoology department of Lucknow University identified it as a rare grasshopper. The muhnochwalegend also died a natural death.

The Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida police are trying to put their heads together to solve the mystery behind the creature that behaves like a monkey and has attacked citizens recently. Vivek Gogia, deputy commissioner of north-west Delhi, affected by the so-called monkey man's strikes, refused to give his personal assessment. "I am sorry. In such matters, there is nothing like a gut feeling. We are investigating the matter professionally and will get to the bottom of it," Gogia told rediff.com. Similar views were expressed by senior ranking officers of the Ghaziabad and Noida police, who refused to dismiss the case as a figment of imagination of the people. On April 5, Anil Gopal, a resident of Sector 11 of Pratap Vihar in Purana Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad district, complained that he was attacked by a monkey, while asleep on a terrace, at 01:45 hours IST. For two weeks, there was no sign of the monkey or a complaint from any place.

Monkey Man Details

On April 18, the creature returned with a bang. Vinod, a resident of Mange Wali Gali in Purana Vijay Nagar was alleged attacked by a monkey at 03:15 hours IST while asleep on the terrace. The two incidents spread panic among people. Many people felt insecure as the monkey allegedly attacked a wireless operator, sepoy Lakhpat Singh, at the Vijay Nagar police station. The station house officer of Vijay Nagar police station, on instructions from superiors, asked his staff to maintain a separate register, to note down all complaints relating to attacks by the monkey on citizens. Now, it is known as the nakabposh/monkey attack register. Though the initial attacks were attributed to a monkey, later, the 'size' of the monkey and its description started varying.

On April 19, the creature attacked Raihasuddin while he was asleep in his hutment. The man, mauled by the creature, had to spend 21 days at home before he could resume duty at the Hamdard Dawakhana. When this correspondent visited Sector 11 in Vijay Nagar, the victim was not available. However, within seconds, there were more than 100 people giving their descriptions of the creature. "His back was very big,'' said one, and hence the attacker took on the description of a gorilla. Anisa, the wife of the victim, insisted that she had seen the attacker. Though the creature attacked others in between, its shape changed and it became a nakabposh on April 30. According to the complaint register of the police, Pinto, son of Saudan of Kala Khera village, described the attacker as a nakabposh who injured him on his legs and disappeared from the scene. According to the police, the complaint was investigated by the chowky incharge of Guoshala and it was found that the attacker was a nakabposh. This led the local police to name the register as nakabpost/monkey.

On May 16, the attacker acquired a new form, when Radha, wife of Sanjay of Sector 9 in Vijay Nagar, insisted that the attacker was a nakabposh who had gleaming bulbs on his otherwise dark black body. Others asleep in the same room did not see anything of that sort. A day later, the creature became a sort of a gymnast, who could jump 20 feet across terraces with ease. This time, the victim was Sarla. Four monkeys were feasting at the Vijay Nagar police station canteen in Ghaziabad on Friday afternoon. When asked why they were not being chased away, a policeman shot back, ''We don't want to be bitten.'' The menace has spread to Mirzapur, Purana Vijay Nagar, Mata colony, Madhav Pura, Kailash Colony, Khayara Bhatta, Nasratpura and Shibbanpura. Now, peace has returned to Ghaziabad, but the slightest provocation forces people to huddle together in their houses and not open the doors to even known persons.

On April 10, someone spread a rumour that the local police had arrested the 'monkey man'. In a matter of minutes, a crowd collected and the police had a difficult time convincing the people that there was no such arrest. Though the incidents have decreased considerably, policemen in the district are keeping their fingers crossed. "We are now having a good time. The menace has now gone to Delhi. Let the Delhi police handle it," chuckled a junior level officer of the district.

Onkar Singh in New Delhi In their over enthusiasm to catch the 'monkey man', the residents of East Delhi on Thursday night thrashed a man returning home on a scooter. The man was eventually rescued by the police. Hordes of youngsters armed with sticks have been keeping vigil in several residential areas ever since the stories of attacks by the 'monkey man' began circulating in the capital. Speaking to rediff.com a senior officer of the Delhi police attributed Thursday night's incident to the wrong approach adopted by the Delhi police in its bid to catch the 'monkey man'. "The Commissioner of Police Ajay Raj Sharma has announced a cash award of Rs 50,000 to whoever provides information about this mysterious attacker. Now that gives liberty to the people to go hunting for the 'monkey man.' This man was lucky to survive," he said. The Delhi police, meanwhile, has set up a special task force to unravel the mystery of the 'monkey man'. The police control room has been receiving, on an average, over 25-30 distress calls every night. The investigations in the case are being monitored by Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi range) Suresh Roy.

A FIRST-HAND REPORT ON HOW THE RATIONALISTS STOPPED THE MASS MANIA

Sanal Edamaruku http://www.rationalistinternational.net/archive/en/rationalist_2001/72.htm

Slowly things are returning to normalcy in New Delhi. India's capital is looking back on two weeks of mass delusion and panic, sometimes dangerously turning into mass hysteria. The shadow of the "monkey-man" is still looming large over suburbs and urban villages. There are still excited people, waiting for a little sound, a little movement at night to utter a piercing cry and flee precipitately through the darkness, and others, ready to beat to death whatever might suddenly provoke their fear. But the peak of the crisis is over, the atmosphere has already cooled down to a great extend, and police has finally gained full control of the situation. Life has started to take its normal course again.

For two weeks the headquarters of Indian Rationalist Association have been the center of a fight against mass frenzy and widespread confusion, which engulfed major sections of the population, the media and the authorities. We have been able to change the public perception of the "mysterious" events with rational and scientific explanations and to provide an orientation, which helped to dissolve the crisis.

Some when in the beginning of May, when the city was reeling under a wave of scorching heat, a monster called the "monkey-man" jumped into public attention. Rumors of his attacks spread like wildfire and unleashed panic in and around Delhi. The newspapers were suddenly full with reports of people who claimed they had encountered the creature. It used to appear in the dark of the night, between midnight and 4 a.m. and favorably during the long hours of power cut, which are a regular menace in the poor areas of the town, which he exclusively visited. On the flat roof tops, where people use to sleep to get some respite from the pressing climate, similar scenes were happening every night: One of the sleepers suddenly wakes up in cold sweat and feels somebody has touched or scratched him. He cries in panic and everybody tries to escape, rushing down staircases or even jumping down from roof tops. There is chaos, pushing and pulling, stampede. Some people fall down and get injured. In some of these cases, people have even died by falling down staircases or jumping head down from the roof.

At the headquarters of Indian Rationalist Association we reacted fast hearing the first reports about the monkey-man's attacks. The situation was like in September 1995, when the marble statues of the Hindu deities all over India developed an unquenchable thirst for milk. But this time it was not a peaceful miracle, which cast its spell over the population. This time it was a mass delusion, which sometimes turned into hysteria and cost several lives. And while the milk-miracle subsided in one day, after we were given opportunity to explain the scientific principles behind the "drinking" statues in the evening news of several TV channels, the monkey-man mania turned out to be far more complex and resistant.

We started to collect all information so far available and went to the affected areas to talk to people. I personally questioned at least forty persons who claimed they had seen something and hundreds who were terrified by what they had heard. We evaluated all recorded material and got some important clues. Most of the people who came up with detailed descriptions had not seen anything themselves. Those who claimed they had encountered the creature gave very different and mutually contradicting descriptions of it. We soon understood that the monkey-man "appeared" in so many different shapes, as there were "eye-witnesses" to describe him. The big shadow-like monkey of the first reports had meantime, in a quasi Darwinian development, reached five or six feet height and got a human face. Not one, but at least five different faces of him appeared as phantom pictures, drawn with the help of different witnesses. He also started to wear clothes instead of his earlier shaggy fur, sometimes a sunglass, and sometimes a big black helmet like an astronaut. Though he was allegedly able to jump 30 meters and to move effortless from roof to roof and from village to village, he never produced a single footprint. Sometimes he was seen gliding on a big skateboard. Green and red lights were blinking on his chest and his hands were armed with artificial metallic claws. A reputed newspaper proposed he might be an extra-terrestrial or a robot with remote control. Beast, man or machine, he was a creature of darkness. When one held a light against him he would vanish in thin air, people told me. And when he was attacked he would change his shape and become a cat or a huge bird, raising up with a mighty stroke of his wings. It became more and more clear for us that the monkey-man was a pure fantasy product. He seemed to come right out of the television, which is presenting a multitude of very popular fantasy serials in different settings - from the story of the Indian monkey god Hanuman to Batman and the X-Files.

I came out with a statement. On the base of my evaluation and careful study, I was convinced that the monkey-man mania was a false belief of groups of people, firmly maintained even though it was contradicted by reality. The monkey-mania was a mass delusion. The monkey-man did not exist. His "appearances" were nothing but hallucinations of groups and people with tendency to hysterical psychosis. Such hysteria or hysterioid behavior can acquire epidemic proportions, when people in small or larger groups are charged with extreme fear or anxiety. A casual cat, a stray monkey, a moving shadow of a tree branch or a scream of a scared person can trigger off group panic and subsequent hallucinations.

Many people had been waiting for orientation and there was a great relief to hear a clear and calm voice. Even if most people were hesitant to fully accept our position, it was immediately in the center of public interest. I was extensively quoted by all major dailies the next morning and I gave interviews for the news in all major TV channels in English and in Hindi. Some of them repeated my statement every hour in the news. Like a pin picked into a giant balloon, the monkey-man mania started slowly but continuously loosing air.

But on the other side there were massive attempts from various sides to blow it up. Some TV channels had boom time and had their camera teams curb suburbs and villages around the clock in search of new sensations, witnesses and victims, encouraging all rumormongers. Police swung dramatically into action by pressing thousand additional policemen into service to patrol the affected areas at night with "shoot-at-sight" order, further escalating the panic. Smart politicians called even for deputation of military forces to protect their constituencies. A section of the media got currency with the theory that the monkey-man was an agent of Pakistan's intelligence agency. What had started as psychotic hallucination, gained new dimensions of reality.

As if to insist on the monster's existence, more and more attacks were reported. The media presented scratches and wounds, allegedly caused by its claws and teeth, as ultimate "proof" that there must be something. Police intensified their absurd efforts to catch it by further increasing the additional forces to three thousand. A special task force was equipped with extra fast vehicles, as the monkey-man seemed to move with enormous speed. Encounters were reported from different, sometimes far off places nearly at the same time.

We went out to have a close look at the victims' injuries, which had become something like the last bastion of the spook. We succeeded in tracing most of the known cases and were rather "disappointed": There was not a single serious wound, only little scratches, cuts and rubbings, which under normal circumstances would not get any attention. Red marks, which could well be caused by rubbing of naked skin on the hard jute strings of the traditional beds, small scratch marks looking like opened mosquito bites, four line scratch designs in fork size and other common little injuries. Interestingly there was no uniformity in them, though they were claimed to come from the same source. Most of the injuries occurred on the legs, which is quite unusual if there was an upright attacker of six feet height. With every single case we were more convinced that all these injuries were self inflicted, deliberately or unknowingly.

Clinical examinations of the scratches, so far, did not establish the involvement of any human or animal nail. In a hyper gullible situation, any casual injury and any injury, scratch or wound, inflicted on their own bodies by people, craving pathologically for attention, could be taken as injuries caused by the "monkey-man". I noticed that people, describing how they had been attacked and injured, were more excited than sullen and traumatized, indicating their mental state. There are cases of an extreme form of pathological lying consisting of telling stories without discernible or adequate motive and with such zeal that the claimants may eventually become convinced of their truth. This state of mind is called pseudologia fantastica.

Our statements about the obviously self-inflicted wounds finally turned the course of events. Meantime the situation took a new and frightening turn: People got violent. In two incidents the mob, armed with sticks and lathis, chased and attacked a couple of harmless passers-bye and would have killed them mercilessly if police did not come to their rescue. The only mistake of the victims of the furious mob was that they had a black motor bike helmet with them, quite similar to the astronaut helmet of the science fiction version of the monkey-man. The mob attacks caused a shock wave.

In press and TV interviews I criticized the Delhi police for promoting mass delusion and panic rather than dissolving it. By sending out three thousand men in khaki to catch a phantom, they officially and authoritatively confirmed its existence and encouraged further escalation of the panic. It was the responsibility of the police to investigate all claims strictly and seriously instead of jumping into unfounded conclusions. Proper questioning of those who claimed they had encountered the monster and forensic investigation of the wounds of the "victims" would fast put and end to false claims. I advised to calm people down and educate them that the monkey-man was nothing but a product of wild fantasies. High police officers responded fast with weak excuses, the controversy provoked discussions inside and outside the police force. The main Hindi news channel and later also some newspapers took up the idea of systematic education and prepared schoolbook like graphs and charts with questions and "Rationalists' advices" how to tackle the problem. Police officers were interviewed and asked to comment our proposals one by one. Seven hours later, the TV news started with the announcement that the police was meanwhile completely in line with the rationalist position. They had started to arrest rumor- mongers and pranksters and the number of panic calls to the police control room dropped drastically. They constituted a team of forensic experts and psychologists to investigate all claims. The results confirmed what we had already explained several days before.

We are glad about these results. Our lonely initiative and intervention to deflate the giant balloon of the monkey-man mania has opened many eyes and minds. They have reminded the authorities of their duties and responsibilities and encouraged many scientists to play their part in educating the public. This is in my opinion one of the classical roles rationalist organizations can play and have to play in society.

Spreading with enormous pace and intensity, the monkey-man mania in India's capital has alarmed and shocked us. During these days of hard and hectic work around the clock we felt like firefighters trying to stop an expanding area conflagration. But looking back, I feel that our victory over the flames has not only been a defensive one. The fantastic monkey-man has given us a unique opportunity to touch thousands of people and make them listen to the voice of reason at a moment of greatest receptivity. This lesson in critical thinking, which we have been able to give, may have a lasting impact on many of them. The episode can also be seen as rationalist crash course on how to handle mass delusions. And last but not least, it has been another chance for us to understand the importance of our work and it has equipped us to face greater challenges and take up greater tasks.

The Monkey-man of Delhi References

It's a man! It's a monkey! It's a...; by Onkar Singh in New Delhi; May 18, 2001; Rediff India. 'Monkey man' keeps Delhi awake again; May 18, 2001; Rediff India. .

"Desi fables - The Times of India". Indiatimes. 26 June 2010.

Newton, Michael (2005). "Monkey Man (India)". Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide. McFarland & Company, Inc.. pp. 306–307. ISBN 0-7864-2036-7.