JEDDAH, 25 May — Is it a figment of somebody’s fertile imagination which rumor mongering has enveloped the whole of New Delhi? Is it a criminal moving around in the garb of a monkey and terrorizing people? Is there a real monkey or any other mysterious creature on the prowl?

These are some of the questions that are uppermost in the minds of local residents. A cross-section of them from different nationalities gave different viewpoints depending on their experience of India or how they looked at the country from long distance.

Salim Hasan Al-Asmarei, a senior Saudi business executive, said: “This looks like a product of someone’s fertile imagination. It’s always the uneducated lot who spread such stories. And there are enough people to hear one thing and make it more spicy for others to consume. On the face of it, I think, it’s not true that one or more monkeys are terrorizing the people. When I go to my own villages, I come across stories which are baseless or difficult to believe. It’s human tendency to ‘see the unseen,’ blow it out of proportion and make others believe.”

Westerners mostly dismissed the reports as a “monkey menace.” John Martin, a British senior executive in the shipping industry, said he had visited India on many occasions. “I can recall a number of places where I saw the monkey menace. Monkeys could be seen atop trees and buildings in major cities I visited. But they were generally calm, so reports that they are terrorizing Delhites, are strange,” he added.

“This cannot be the work of criminals because in that case they might have been caught by police during the more than one week their activities are being reported,” Denis Ferrer, an American executive in the food industry, said.

Dr. Hassan Al Zahrani, a Saudi consultant urologist, said: “I’ve been reading reports but am looking for more information. I’ve a lot of Indian friends. In fact, I was about to write to one of my friends in India to send me more details on this. I can’t believe such so-called mysterious happenings in a country, which is in the forefront in information technology and boasts a good number of its nationals working in the US Silicon Valley.

“It seems someone is fooling around in the garb of a monkey,” was how Dr. Abdullah Moopan, who heads an Indian organization of Keralites reacted.  Many other Indian expatriates here find it strange that when most of New Delhi sleeps secure, a shadowy terror stalks the city’s lesser parts. Why only the areas inhabited by poor people should be the so-called monkey’s target and not the ‘rich’ areas? They ask.

Even as the mysterious creature, dubbed the monkey man, had become part of New Delhi’s urban legends, what baffles everyone here is how the police have remained clueless. On hearing of its arrival, at least two persons jumped to death out of fear, and many more carry wounds allegedly inflicted by the creature.

“Either the police themselves are afraid of the creature or they deliberately don’t want to end the menace.” This remark from Muhammad Obaidullah, a Bangladeshi office secretary, was echoed by most of his compatriots here. In fact, reports from India suggest that the areas where the mysterious creature has wrought havoc are mostly inhabited by Bangladeshis.

Pakistanis contacted dismissed it as a product of rumor mongering or a ploy to defame Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). “India is always in the habit of attributing the blame to Pakistan, so we’re not surprised that even the doings of the so-called monkey man are blamed on ISI,” a Pakistani resident of long standing, said.

“India is known to venerate monkeys and cows and so they don’t kill them. The havoc was being caused by real monkeys. Police and other authorities have remained ‘clueless’ because they don’t want to harm them.” Last week parts of New Delhi were terrorized by reports of a marauding “monkey man” that attacked people in the city of 13 million at random. But police said their investigations showed that the “monkey man” was neither man nor monkey but a result of public hysteria.  Now, even as reports emanate from neighboring Rajasthan state that the mysterious creature might have moved to that area, the question remains: Is it a monkey, a monkey man or a mysterious creature.