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Natwarlal The greatest con man - 13 mind-blowing facts
Rarely we come across extraordinary people whose story can amuse you. I am pretty sure that you might have heard of the name Natwarlal but not many are aware of his totally amusing feats of that gave him his name.
The lawyer who turned into the greatest ‘Conman’ India has ever seen with his endless clever frauds. Natwarlal, whose real name was Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava was born in 1912 at Bihar which he left at the age of 15 never to return. By profession he was a lawyer before he turned into a conman.
Here I have put together few of few of his unbelievable feats:
1. Posing as a Government official sold the mighty Taj Mahal thrice to foreigners by tricking them in believing him!
2. In the same manner, he sold the Rashtrapati Bhavan once, the Red Fort (Lal Qila) twice and even the Indian Parliament along with its 545 sitting members!
3. The master conman skillfully used more than 50 different names to disguise himself to fool people.
4. He easily forged signatures of many, including celebrities like a pro. He even forged the President Rajendra Prasad's signature to sell monuments.
5. He cheated many shop owners to the tune of lacs of rupees using forged cheques and demand drafts.
6. Posed as needy social worker and took huge amount of cash from top industrialists as charity.
7. Wanted in 8 States with 100+ Cases registered against him and an incredible 113 years of prison life awarded to him.
8. He made 8 daring escapes from different jails. He was arrested 9 times but managed to escape each time!
9. In his last escape in 1996, police were taking an 84-year-old ill and wheelchair bound Natwarlal from jail to hospital. He just disappeared at New Delhi railway station never to be seen again.
10. He once walked out of a jail dressed as Police Sub-inspector (uniform was smuggled to his cell). Bribed his cell guards to open the jail door, took taxi and disappeared.
11. His death is also a mystery. While his lawyer claims, he died in 2009, His brother claims he died 13 years ago, that is, in 1996! So, he literally died twice!
12. He is so famous, his fans in his hometown wished to erect a life-size statue of him.
13. His legendary con art also inspired Bollywood movies like Mr. Natwarlal which starred Amitabh Bachchan as well as the movie named Raja Natwarlal which starred Emraan Hashmi.
In spite of being dead for years, he will remain India’s most popular Conman.
