Would you believe a person offering to sell you one of the seven wonders? While it may seem hard to believe today but a few ago, years there was a man who, with his clever cheat and cunning ways, sold the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and the Parliament House of India along with its 545 sitting members, and got away with it, REPEATEDLY!
Let’s move to India’s most popular conman, Natwarlal, whose real name was Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava—considered one of the most famous con men of India so far. After you read it, you will never forget it.
THE BACKSTORY OF NATWARLAL
He wasn’t born in some dark alleyways or grew up with crime around him. In fact, he was an attorney. He became a crook only when he found out that he was good at counterfeiting.
He found out that he had the skills to mimic inch-perfect signatures. In a world without PINs and passwords, signatures indeed served the purpose. His first crime was counterfeiting signatures for stealing Rs 1000.
NATWARLAL’S ASTONISHING CRIME HISTORY
He was a master of disguise with more than 50 different pen names. He even falsified Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dhirubhai Ambani. He pretended to be a government official and conned foreigners by selling them famous Indian monuments.
He is known to have sold the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Rashtrapati Bhavan on several occasions. He even sold the house of parliament to a foreigner, and the deputies were included in the agreement!
He has 14 convictions totalling more than 113 years.
HE WASN’T ALL BAD
Natwarlal was the Robin Hood for his village. When he did not hide or run from the police, he spent time in his village and gave his fortune to the needy. The people in his village were also planning to install his statue in the town. The village folk definitely thought him to be the hero even though he probably wasn’t.
HIS ENIGMATIC END
He was lastly officially spotted at the New Delhi Railway station in June 1996 while he was being transported from a prison in Kanpur to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital for treatment. He vanished from his wheelchair at the age of 84.
Like his life, his death was another mystery. Although his lawyers say he died in July 2009, his brother Ganga Prasad claims to have cremated him in 1996 in Ranchi. The life of India’s greatest con man certainly makes for a thrilling story.
