Natwarlal

Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava, better known as Natwarlal (1912–2009), was a noted Indian con man known for having repeatedly "sold" the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and the Rashtrapati Bhavan and also the Parliament House of India along with its 545 sitting members.

He was born in Bangra village in Siwan district of Bihar, by profession he was a lawyer before he turned into a conman.

He had duped hundreds of people of crores of rupees and used more than 50 aliases to disguise himself. He was a master of disguises and used novel ideas to cheat people. He was also a master in forging signatures of famous personalities. He is also said to have cheated number of industrialists including the Tatas, the Birlas and also Dhirubhai Ambani taking from them huge money in cash, posing as social workers or needy person. Also he had duped many shop-owners with lakhs of rupees, paying them by cheque and demand drafts, which were later found to be forged.

Natwarlal was wanted in more than 100 cases and he was wanted by 8 states police and was sentenced to 113 years in prison. However, he made daring escapes from different jails eight times in his life.

Natwarlal was arrested nine times but every time he was able to break out of jail and escape. He was convicted for 14 cases of forgery and was sentenced for 113 years, but he hardly spent 20 years in prison.The last time he was arrested was in 1996 and was 84 years old at that time. But he managed again give the police the slip and was last seen by authorities on June 24, 1996; when the wheelchair-using octogenarian vanished while being transported from prison to a hospital for treatment. He disappeared at New Delhi railway station, when he was being taken to AIIMS, under police escort from Kanpur jail for his treatment, after which he was never seen again.

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