BENGALURU: Technology-driven paranoia in the best tradition of science fiction appears to be driving the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission round the bend in India’s cyber capital.One conspiracy theorist has asked the state rights body in Bengaluru to save her from the US federal police who, she believes, are “tapping” into her brain. Commission officials say this complaint received by the commissioner from Sri Rekha (name changed) a few weeks ago is among the many that waste precious man hours.“When she first came to us, she said she had issues with her former husband who is in the US. We enquired if there were any property disputes or child custody issues she needed help with, but learned that her problem was that she believed the US federal police had tapped into her brain and were controlling her thoughts,” KSHRC acting chairperson Meera Saxena said.KPS Gill, the retired “supercop” best known for his efforts to control insurgency in Punjab, probably does not even know Rakesh P (name changed) of Bengaluru. But the man has recently complained that Gill has been tapping his brain for several days. “He says there is a chip! And that Gill is doing this at the instance of some religious math in Andhra,” Saxena said.The commission finds such complaints well beyond its area of expertise and plans to seek help from the National Institute of Mental health & Neuro Sciences (Nimhans).Another woman told the panel that Tamil Nadu police were controlling her thoughts. She said she had met an acquaintance for lunch and after the meal, he told her to move on in life just as her husband had after their divorce. “She said she later learnt that the man was a Tamilian, like her ex-husband, and that they had knowledge of her thoughts through tapping by TN police,“ a commission official said.Nimhans director BN Gangadhar said: “Sometimes paranoid people begin to fear things they are exposed to in real life, or what they talk or read about (even if it does not exist).“Psychiatrist Kannan G K, who has treated a patient who thought the Tamil Nadu CM had inserted a chip into his brain, says not all cases of paranoia can be classified as mental illness. Experts say paranoia is known to exist among people who've limited their exposure to closed groups that discuss only certain issues, or those who have a history of ill-treatment or a family history of mental illness-related paranoia.