Spooked cops stay clear of Indian police station after dark

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2006

BHOPAL, India (AFP) — Spooked officers are crying off night duty at an Indian police station they say is haunted by ghosts -- but their superiors say they are just too lazy to work at night.

"A man with long hair and long nails moves around in the police station," said constable Umed Singh, speaking from the Bharauli police post in the Indian badlands of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh state.

For centuries police and soldiers have fought robbers in the Chambal ravines, a rugged region some 500 kilometres (315 miles) from the state capital Bhopal.

But now the officers say they would rather face bandits than the bogeymen they claim come after sunset.

"Whenever I am on night duty, it seems as if somebody is sleeping beside me and he disappears within seconds,"...