| Monkeyman’ creates scare in Khanpur Meghdoot Sharon Ahmedabad, February 20: THERE seems to be a lot of monkey business going on in Khanpur Darwaja Chhapra. And it’s left residents of the slum located along the Sabarmati in Khanpur worried. Since the last 15 days, residents claim to have seen a person, dressed in black and wearing a mask. The ‘monkeyman’ whom they describe as between 25 and 20 years, dark-skinned and having curly hair reportedly can be seen hopping from roof to roof and also on to trees, they say. However, the scared residents have still not lodged a police complaint. Sure that this is a supernatural occurrence, the residents have taken to maintaining night-long vigil. Residents of the slum reject the possibility that the person could be a thief a drug addict or even a human. He has not stolen anything, they say, adding that ‘‘when chased, the figure disappears.’’ Most of these sightings have been reported from midnight to dawn. What has heightened their fear is the claim that two youths of the area — Mehboob and Farooq — got close to the ‘monkeyman’ which reportedly disappeared. Residents say the youths have been ‘‘behaving abnormally’’ since then, and had to be taken to a Maulvi who sprinkled holy water on them. ‘‘Four days ago, we chased the man along the river bed till Cama Hotel. Then he just disappeared,’’ says Bashir Malbari, a resident of Khanpur Darwaza Chhapra. Malbari, who has a paan shop outside the Darwaza, says that he has not seen the man but has heard him running on rooftops. Convinced that this is no thief, Malbari says, ‘‘I feel someone is practicing hypnotism in our slum.’’ This also was not a case of someone playing pranks, he says, adding that no thief would try his luck at the slum. ‘‘Mehboob, who saw the man from as close as five feet and even attacked him, fainted. We had to take him to the Maulvi,’’ claims Mohammed Salim, another resident of the slum. He adds that there have been more than half-a-dozen instances in the past fortnight when residents chased the person, who disappeared. Abdul Hamid, another youngster of the slum, who claims to have seen the person, described him as a lean man who carries a sharp weapon. ‘‘I saw him from the back. He had a sword in his hand and when I raised an alarm, he jumped to another roof and then on to a tree,’’ he says. Pyaare Khan, an elder at the slum, says 40 years ago there was a ‘haivan’ (demon) that appeared every time there was a funeral in Shahpur area. He says two decades ago, there was a magician who moved around Nehru Bridge with a skull in his hand. ‘‘I think this is a reincarnation of one of those two evil spirits,’’ he says, adding that policemen from Shahpur police station have tried to help them search the ‘monkeyman.’ An old woman reportedly identified the person as a drug addict, claiming she had seen him loitering around the area a few days ago. But residents say they had caught all drug addicts in the area, but not one resembled the person they were looking for. Interestingly, the Khanpur police chowky shares a wall with the slum and cops too have joined the residents in their search on at least six occasions. Constable Laxman Chavda says, ‘‘Yes, there have been cases, but nobody was found. I do not think there is anything supernatural.’’ Shahpur police station personnel said there have been cases when policeman have joined the search, but added that the sound on roofs could have been made by cats. |