By AFP

The primate - a macaque - was caught by a professional monkey catcher after frustrated locals complained it had been stealing food and tearing up pillows for six months.

A crowd gathered in India's commercial capital Sion and cheered as the monkey was bound with its hands tied and a rope around its neck before it was put into a cage.

(AFP/Getty)

It was one of three or four monkeys to have been tearing around the community in the Mumbai's central district and residents recently complained to a local municipal councillor about the unwelcome guests.

Monkeys, who are revered in Hindu-majority India, often trash gardens, offices, residential rooftops and even attack people viciously for food - but are rarely subjected to such public humiliation.

When locals spotted one of the primates on Friday morning they called a monkey catcher who hot-footed it to the housing block and laid a trap with fruit.

(AFP/Getty)

At one point a passerby patted it on the forehead, only for the monkey to hiss aggressively before showing him a full set of sharp teeth.

Later the shackles were removed from the monkey and it was placed in the cage, where it ate grapes and looked forlornly at the crowd of staring onlookers.

The monkey is now set for a new life in the countryside north of Mumbai.

"We will make sure it's fit and when it is we will release him on the outskirts of Thane," an official in the Maharashtra state forest department told.

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