A cocktail of fear over the CCTV footage of a naked man and swirling rumours surrounding him is giving the residents of Digha, near Thane, sleepless nights for the past 15 days. The Rabale MIDC police have stepped up night vigil in the densely populated pockets of Krushnawadi, Sanjay Gandhi Nagar and Ambedkar Nagar to give confidence to the locals.

It all started after a resident claimed that he saw a man without clothes when he stepped out of his home at night to attend nature’s call.  “The man was peeping into a home, he was completely naked. After I shouted at him, he started running away. I chased him but he vanished in the lanes,” said the resident on the condition of anonymity.