Kurla West resident and social worker Anita Shetty is at her wits end. Where she otherwise spends a better part of her time helping families in need and conducting donation drives, she now finds herself grappling with rumours that have consumed her neighbourhood.

“Parents are a nervous wreck,” she says, when we meet her outside the gate of Holy Cross High School, Kurla, at 2 pm on Wednesday. Shetty is here with a pair of volunteers, distributing food packets to lorry drivers and cart-pullers. A beggar in rags is hovering, watching from the distance. She calls out to him, and hands him a banana. “Everyone is a suspect,” she says, as he crosses the road, disappearing into the crowd.