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Fraser du Toit

Monkey Man of New Delhi

Let's face it, monkeys are weird. These too small humanoids are packed with more mischief than seems logical. Monkeys can, and will, wreak casual havoc wherever they go. They love having fun and eating delicious treats. Monkey attacks are quite common, whether their targets are humans or other animals, they fear few creatures.

The only advantage we as great apes have over our smaller simian cousins is our technology. What if there was a monkey who mastered steel? That's exactly what allegedly happened in New Delhi, India, in May 2001.

New Delhi's Monkey Man raged across the suburbs of New Delhi for 2 years before disappearing. The Monkey Man was responsible for at least 2 deaths during his reign of steel-clawed terror.


police sketch of the New Delhi Monkey man
Monkey Man has two looks, casual, and Gestapo

Biker Monkey - Describing the Beast


The Monkey man as drawn by AI
I come in malice, take me to your leaders

Starting in May 2000, several attacks by an unknown humanoid were reported. The assailant was covered in black fur and had a distinctly simian face. Unlike most monkeys, the Monkey Man was sometimes seen wearing clothes.

As the Monkey Man panic escalated, descriptions of the creature became increasingly demonic. It now had shining red eyes, a set of Freddy Krueger-like metal claws, and wore a uniform reminiscent of the Nazi SS. Later reports described the creature as mechanical, with exposed wires and sparks flying out of its head.

All the Monkey Man attacks took place at night, amidst the rolling blackouts that were plaguing New Delhi in the early 2000s. Conditions were ripe for misidentification, and in the darkness that descended upon the people of New Delhi, a demon arose.

Over 350 encounters with the Monkey Man were reported. Descriptions of the fiend were similar in their size and nature. He was always between 1-1.8 meters tall and covered in dark fur when not in uniform.

The Monkey Man would often flee the scene of his attacks with great bounding leaps. He was similar in this way to Spring-Heeled Jack, who terrorized England for 60 years.


Hysteria and Death


Langur monkey, Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, India
Don't blame this on us

The police were inundated with reports of Monkey Man encounters. They had difficulty separating hoaxers from honest reports. Monkey Man reports muddied the waters for other assault reports. It was a bad time for justice.

In an effort to weed out the hoax reports, the police set up a hotline. They promised a 50,000 Rupee reward for information leading to the capture of the New Delhi Monkey Man. Unfortunately, this plan backfired. The hotline was bombarded with fanciful citizens trying their luck.

Media outlets ate up the Monkey Man story. They began reporting on the simian menace with few scruples. No matter how outlandish the reports got, they kept on pushing the panic.

Terror galvanized those in poorer neighborhoods to form vigilante groups. Police failed to capture the Monkey Man. These Vigilante groups would roam the streets with retribution on their minds.

One man was severely beaten by one of these mobs. He was a truck driver who was forced off of the road by a mob. They pulled him from his vehicle and savaged him with clubs and fists because they thought that he was the Monkey Man.

Of the 2, maybe 3 deaths attributed to the Monkey Man panic, the first came from an attempt to escape the creature. A man was driven by fear to attempt to climb up the side of a building. He thought that the Monkey Man was coming. Illogical ascent aside, the man lost his grip and tragically fell to his death.

The second confirmed death was again caused by an attempt to flee the Monkey Man. Driven by neighbors' cries that the Monkey Man was behind her, a pregnant woman tried to flee down a dark stairwell. She lost her footing and fell to her death in the darkness.

The news media made no attempt to downplay the hysteria. They likened the Monkey Man to the Hindu god, Hanuman. This link only deepened the fear in a mostly Hindu populace.


Police End the Panic


A Delhi Police marching contingent passes through the Rajpath during the rehearsal for the celebration of 60th Republic Day -2009, in New Delhi on January 06, 2009
Frivolous investigations were cutting into marching time

The Media revealed their true colors during the Monkey Man hysteria. Their motivation was, as it has always been, greed. Anything goes as long as it sells. The truth was never their concern.

Delhi police were spending so much money and time investigating Monkey Man reports that they had to bring an end to the hoaxes somehow. They announced that any false reports could land you with jail-time. Soon the reports petered out, and the Monkey Man became a thing of the past.


Was the Monkey Man real, or simply a phantom conjured up by natural human fear of the darkness and what lurks within?

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