Techie 'uses owl to scare tenant into vacating house'

A software engineer used a rather ingenious method to evict a tenant from a house in Cottonpet, central Bengaluru. He, along with four others, deployed an owl to scare a Marwadi family into vacating the house they had rented recently.

The landlord had asked the tenant to vacate the house following an argument. The tenant, however, refused to move out until the rental agreement expired.

Not having his way, the landlord got in touch with a software engineer named Manmohan who gave him the useful tip that some Marwadis consider owls entering a house a bad omen and will never live in it. This got the landlord thinking. He paid Manmohan Rs 2.5 lakh to evict the family using an owl.

Manmohan roped in four of his friends and caught an owl from Hunsur, Mysuru district.

The bird was then brought to New Mega Guest House, a dormitory owned by the landlord. Once the owl was accustomed to the guest house, it was released into the tenant’s house.

The Marwadi family panicked and decided to vacate the house.

The family, however, realised after some time that the incident was stage-managed by the landlord to evict them.

The tenant approached the forest cell of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and filed a complaint.

A team of CID sleuths led by DySP Balarame Gowda raided the guest house, rescued the owl and arrested the suspects. The four other suspects are Mudeer, Basit, Saleem and Zubair.

The CID believes the suspects could be involved in more wildlife crimes. According to the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972, it’s a crime to keep such birds under captivity. The owl has been sent to a rescue centre.