Natwarlal: The king of con, sold the Parliament house along with the MPs

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Wanted in over 100 criminal cases in eight states and sentenced for an incredible 113 years by various courts, Natwarlal had made eight daring escapes from various jails and was the ultimate confidence trickster. He was last seen in 1979, when he audaciously escaped while being taken for a trial in Bombay and since then had been believed dead.

Natwarlal's modus operandi has hardly changed from his heyday. Only the yarn he spins has been updated. Three months ago, dressed in a spotless white shirt and trousers, he posed as D.N. Tiwari, personal assistant to the Union Finance Minister N.D.Tiwari and went to a watch dealer in New Delhi's busy Connaught Place. He told the proprietor, Surendra Sharma, that the Congress(I) Parliamentary Party was having an important meeting in which the members were to be presented watches.

The next day he came back in a chauffeur-driven car and told Sharma to pack 93 watches and send an employee with him to North Block, where he would issue a bank draft. At North Block, the old man strode in confidently, asking Sharma's employee to wait outside. He soon returned with an authentic looking draft for Rs 32,829 and took the watches. Two days later Sharma's bank reported that the draft was a forged one.

He used the trick with variations in different cities. To a watch dealer in Varanasi he presented himself as Ambika Pandey, purchase officer of the district judge, looking for watches to present to the employees. He made off with 80 watches worth Rs 25,000, again by presenting a forged draft. A Shajahanpur watch dealer was stung for 48 watches.

And in Kanpur, a watch dealer in the busy Sadar Bazar even bribed him with a VIP suitcase, while parting with 83 watches. But he tried the trick once too often. Last month when he approached a Gorakhpur watch dealer with the same story, the alert owner called the police, who arrested him.

India's Greatest Conman Natwarlal Who Sold Taj Mahal Thrice

The life and crimes of a master criminal Natwarlal

He 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 a number of industrialists including the Tatas, the Birlas and also Dhirubhai Ambani taking from them huge sums of money in cash, posing as a social worker or needy person. He also duped many shop-owners of lakhs of rupees, paying them by cheque and demand draft.