Wild monkeys reportedly set upon New Delhi's deputy mayor while he was reading on his balcony Saturday, causing the politician to fall to his death while he grappled with the horde.

S.S. Bajwa, 52, officially died of "serious head injuries" sustained when he lost his footing and plunged from his first-floor terrace.

But family members blamed the simians — protected in the city because Hindus consider them sacred — for killing the businessman and Delhi vice-president for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Times of India reported.

Bajwa, who was elected deputy mayor in April, passed away Sunday in the intensive care unit at a local hospital. He is survived by a wife and a son.

His death underscored what some Delhi residents have complained is becoming a citywide monkey problem.

It was not the first incident in which the revered monkeys have menaced citizens. They have been known to bite unsuspecting people and snatch away food.

Monkeys in the Indian capital are free to roam government buildings and temples because of their religious significance to Hindus. The Hindu deity Hanuman, the monkey god, symbolizes strength in Hinduism.

Meanwhile, animal-rights activists have blamed urban sprawl for taking over so much of the primates' natural habitat that they end up migrating to the city.

In an effort to curb the problem, city authorities are training a larger, fiercer breed of predatory monkey — the langur — to frighten and pick off the smaller, more frenzied Rhesus macaques. Over the years, the city has also employed monkey catchers to relocate the Rhesus macaques to forests.