Believing such rumours, local residents armed with lathis started patrolling the area. Some of them, mistaking three men for robbers, also beat them up. One of those assaulted was mentally unstable. What earned the Bhandup police a mouthful from the police headquarters was that they were encouraging such rumours through their actions. Policemen were visiting shoe shops in an attempt to identify whether ‘shoes with special springs’ were being manufactured there, sources said.

What also went against them was the decision to call in a snorkel ladder from the fire department to look for robbers, who they believed were hiding in tree-tops.

“The ACP of the area ordered men to go to shoe shops and conduct enquiries about shoes that had special springs built into the soles to make people jump to great heights. The last straw was when they called in a snorkel ladder to climb tall trees ... to look for the monkey men,” said a senior police officer, who did not wish to be named.

At a public meeting held on Thursday, the Bhandup Police and the Additional Commissioner of Police (East), Quaiser Khalid, were taken to task for encouraging such “baseless rumours’’ and promising an additional 200 men to patrol the area.