Braid-Chopping, The Mass hysteria now in Mumbai: Is it Reality or Hoax?  

Mumbai, August 17: The story of Braid Chopping is coming out each and every day from different parts of the country. Also, some of them are fake ones.

Now the latest reports from Mumbai states that three women’s hair is being chopped off.

In the recent incidents that happened in Bhaykhla and Wadala area of Mumbai, the braids of three females were Chopped.

Roshan, a resident of  Bhaykhala area said that as she had a severe headache when she was going to bed, for which she took medicine too.

Roshan’s  husband further claims that she was about to sleep when she felt that a small animal to have crossed her body.

The husband caught something and switched on the light, and that’s when they saw the chopped hair.

According to the victim, they immediately filed a complaint at the Agripada Police Station. The police authorities have sent the victim’s hair for further evidence and more investigation.

In the second incident, a woman’s hair in a Mumbai area was chopped off on Wednesday evening, according to reports.

The woman, named Anita, was combing her hair when she suddenly had a black out and a severe headache.

Anita’s aunt asked her to rest and when she started feeling better, she realized that her hair was chopped. She was rushed to the nearest hospital and was discharged by the doctors later.

In the Agripada area, on the third incident, a 40-year-old woman’s braid was chopped off.

After so many incidents women have started engraving verses from Quran on the doors of their respective residences, and as a precaution have started wearing dupattas and caps.

In Lucknow, Six cases of braid-chopping were reported in the city area on Friday taking the number of such cases to 12. Friday’s incidents took place in Sarojininagar, Krishnanagar, Nigohan, Maal, and Chinhat.

In the past one week, at least 25 cases of Braid Chopping was reported to the Delhi Police. After June 2017, 90 more cases have been recorded from the neighboring states. Some women say it was a cat that turned into a man and did it. Others talk of a man dressed in yellow and red.

In all these incidents some women say that it was a cat that turned into a man and did it. Others talk of a man dressed in yellow and red.

Recently, the Villagers near Agra turned against a woman and killed her suspecting her to be the ghost who lopped off braids.

In Mewat, some people killed a cat because someone had seen that it turning into a witch. In the only “case” cracked so far, two young pranksters confessed to sniping a 14-year-old girl’s braid. While one of the pranksters was her brother, the other was her nephew. But that’s not stopped the contagion.

According to police and psychologist sources, it is believed that the women are cutting their own hair, either consciously or “in an altered sensorium”.

“All the cases that are happening on behind closed doors and also in the presence of family members,” an investigator points out.

It would seem that this is a mass hysteria, a condition described as an assumed threat that causes physical symptoms among a large group of people, spreading through sight, sound, smell or conversation, and where people feed off each other’s emotional reactions, causing the panic to escalate.

According to some Psychological experts, People Suffering from stress, psychiatric disorders, and alcohol-related illnesses, and encouraged by unconfirmed media reports, they came up with their strange experiences.

The minor injuries they had were not caused by any animal bites but, inflicted by a blunt object.

In one case, a man from northeast Delhi was bitten by his brother, rediff.com reported in June 2001.

(With Agency Inputs)