You must have heard the name of Natwarlal, but do you know this name, which has become the synonym of vicious thugs, was first used for whom. The real name of that thug was Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava who was born in Siwan district of Bihar. Even Tata, Birla, Ambani were not saved from their fraud. He sold the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Rashtrapati Bhavan and even the Parliament House along with its 545 sitting MPs. That too not once but many times.
He was such a thug who became a legend in his lifetime due to his exploits of thugs. A thug whose village people take pride in fact that he was born in his village. A thug whom thugs across the country considers as their ideal. The name of this thug was Natwarlal which later came to be used for every vicious thug.
Natwarlal was born in the year 1912 in the village of Bangra, which comes under Siwan district of Bihar. Before becoming a thug, he was a lawyer. Natwarlal cheated hundreds of people of crores of rupees during his lifetime and had more than 50 fake names. He was also adept at forging signatures of famous people. He had duped big industrialists whose list included the names of Tata, Birla and Ambani.
Natwarlal stole lakhs of rupees from shopkeepers by giving fake cheques and demand drafts. More than 100 cases were registered against him and the police of 8 states were behind him. He was also caught and sentenced to 113 years in jail but no jail in the country could stop Natwarlal. He managed to escape 8 times from the different jails of the country.
When he last escaped from the prison in 1966, he was 84 years old and used to walk in a wheelchair. He was brought from Kanpur jail to AIIMS Hospital in New Delhi for treatment under police supervision. Natwarlal was last seen on 24 June 1996 and after that police could never catch him.
The way Natwarlal's life remained mysterious, his death was also mysterious. In 2009, Natwarlal's lawyer filed an application in the court to quash more than 100 cases pending against him as he died on 25 July 2009. However Natwarlal's brother Ganga prasad Srivastava says that Natwarlal died in 1996 and was cremated in Ranchi.
A film based on Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava's life 'Raja Natwarlal' was also made in which Paresh Rawal and Emraan Hashmi worked. In 2004, Aaj Tak aired several episodes based on Natwarlal's life in its crime show 'Jurm'.
