Baghpat police in dilemma over murder' by monkey

Lucknow: The Baghpat police is in dilemma after the family of a 72-year-old man, who was stoned to death by monkeys on Thursday, demanded that a FIR be lodged naming the monkeys as accused in the murder.

The police have registered the case as an ‘accident’ but the family is not satisfied and has demanded intervention by higher authorities in the case.

Chitwan Singh, station officer of Doghat police station, said, “How can we register the case against monkeys? This will make us a laughingstock. I do not think it is a logical demand. We were definitely informed of the bizarre accident and we registered it in our case diary after which a post-mortem was also conducted.”

A 72-year-old man, Dharampal Singh, died in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district on Thursday after a troop of monkeys rained bricks on him from a treetop. According to reports, the incident took place in Tikri village when the man had gone to fetch dry wood for ‘havan’.

A group of monkeys rained bricks on him and the man was hit on the head and chest that led to his death.

Dharampal Singh’s brother said that the old man  succumbed to his injuries after the monkeys threw around 20 bricks that hit his head, chest and legs and this amounts to murder.

In July this year, a five-year-old boy suffered serious burn injuries after a barrel of monkeys dropped a polythene bag containing crude bombs on him in Fatehpur. Two others were also injured in the incident.