Mystery tinged with terror and tragedy

By Prashant Pandey

NEW DELHI, MAY 15. Fear bordering on hysteria gripped large parts of the Capital's trans-Yamuna area today even as a clueless police intensified its search for the elusive monkeyman who claimed its first victim -- albeit indirectly -- and left another 18 injured.

At Kondli in East Delhi, a 27-year-old pregnant woman fell down from the stairs in panic following commotion about "arrival" of the mysterious creature around 2-30 a.m. She died in hospital soon after.

Another badly affected area was New Usmanpur.The police there received 13 distress calls during the night claiming that the monkeyman had been spotted in the area.

For their part, the police have registered a case under Sections 452 (trespass with intention to hurt) and 323 (causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint from a man named Prakash who said he had been injured by the creature.

The police are simultaneously working on two theories. ``While there can be more than one person involved in the incidents, we cannot rule out the possibility of monkeys,'' said the Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi Range), Mr. Suresh Roy, who patrolled two districts during the night. ``It is not possible for the same creature to attack at two distant places in close succession,'' he contended.

According to reports received here from Ghaziabad in UP, there were three distress calls reporting sighting of the monkeyman around the same time that messages were received by the Delhi police about the creature having been seen in East Delhi. The two police forces have prepared two sketches based on descriptions provided by "eyewitnesses". However, the police said the "eyewitness account" of Vinod Kumar Yadav -- who claimed to have been attacked by the creature at 11 a.m. in Anand Vihar on Monday -- could not be corroborated as the injury marks on his body were ``24 hours old''.

Amid all the confusion, rumours of the creature having been caught kept doing the rounds.

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