India's famous conman - Natwarlal

 Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava or popularly known as Natwarlal was born in Bangra village of Siwan District (Bihar). The same district where India's first President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was born. One went to the Rashtrapati Bhawan (President's house) while the other one had over 100 charges against him.

Natwarlal was a master in copying signatures. He used to remember a signature forever only after seeing for a while, and this habit of him made him India's the biggest conman who sold Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Rashtrapati Bhavan and even the Parliament House of India.

Natwarlal was born as Mithilest Kumar Srivastava and was once asked by his neighbor to deposit a cheque to the bank. He saw that he could easily copy his neighbor's signature. Using this ability, he slowly deposited 1000 Rupees from his bank account. This was the first incident when Natwarlal was involved in forgery.

He then enrolled as a student in B.Com (bachelor of Commerce) and worked as a stock broker part time. As a broker he got aware of the banking rules and it was like cherry on the cake. He already knew how to copy the signatures and this knowledge helped him to easily accomplish the cheats. 

People say that he tricked many jewelers, bankers and looted lakhs of rupees. He also used to target the foreigners. He sold the Parliament House of India to a foreigner along with the members of parliament! Even Punjab National Bank was scammed by him of over 6.5 lacs rupees. It has been reportedly said that he also cheated big industrialists like Tata, Birla, and Ambani. 

All his trickeries resulted in him getting 113 year prison sentence. But he was a master of escaping too and just spent only 20 years. His last escape was in 1996 when he was 84 years old. He was using a wheelchair and asked for a cup of tea from the police officers. Police officers seeing him on wheelchair obliged and went to the shop. When they returned back, they saw him missing. A person who was on wheelchair at the age of 84 and was being taken to hospital for treatment vanished away from New Delhi Railway Station.

His date of death is uncertain. In 2009, Natwarlal's lawyer asked to court to dismiss all the charges upon him as he his no more. According to him, Natwarlal passed away on 25 July 2009. But his, brother says he died in the year 1996, when he escaped from the Railway Station and he did all the last rites.

But having over 100 charges against him, he is treated with utmost respect in his village, Bangra. He holds a Robin-hood like figure there, helping poor by tricking the rich. People say that once he organised a feast in his village and even gave 100 rupees to everyone. It is claimed that the villagers were even planning to install his statue there in his village.

1979 film, Mr.Natwarlal is based on his life where Amitabh Bachchan played the role of Natwarlal. 2014 film Raja Natwarlal too was based on his life where Emraan Hashmi was in the lead role.

Join Telegram Channel here : https://telegram.me/QrioSum