Psssst…Wanna Buy the Taj Mahal?: Natwarlal

India's greatest con artist, Natwarlal, never met a load of cargo he couldn't scam his way into possessing. His many arrests, convictions, and escapes captivated a nation. Especially when he sold the Taj Mahal…thrice!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of Iheartradios Elizabeth Dutton.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, Aaron, do you have a home security system?

Speaker 3 (00:07):
I do?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, listen. Do you know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Yes? I do. I know. All your answers excellent. Okay.
Do you know the film director Guierromo del.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Toro, Not personally, but I know of you know of him?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Right? Do you know that he is an avid critiquer
of alien spacecraft? Yeah, he's an He's a hardcore critic apparently.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Interested in alien spacecraft.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yes, like a legit alien spacecraft. Because you have to
understand he's seen one.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
He has seen one.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Okay, here's I'll just read you.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Got to break this down.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I'll read you the story as he tells it, because
it's much better than my version. I was with a friend.
We bought a six pack, so he was drunk. Okay,
not drunk, he was drinking buzz.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know what the zaren buzz driving is drunk driving.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
But he says, and I quote, we didn't consume it.
So I don't know why he brings it up in
the story for Ambiance. I thought you were a storyteller. Anyway,
the story there was a place called Cerro del Quatro
mountain of the four on the periphery of Guadalajara. We said,
let's go to the highway. We sit down to watch
the stars and have the beer and talk. We were
the only guys by the freeway. I guess in Guadalahara

(01:13):
people hang out by the freeway.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I didn't know we were the.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Only guys by the freeway. I have a six all
the details of this story, Sarah, that you choose to
leave in leave out anyway. And we saw a light
on the horizon going super fast, not linear, and I
said hawk and flash, and we started honking like apparently
they the head lights started honking like this UFO is
now honking right. So at this point, he says, the

(01:36):
UFO went from one thousand meters away too much closer
in like less than a second. And it was so crappy.
It was a flying saucer, so cliched with lights blinking.
It's so sad. I wish I could reveal that they're
not what you think they are, that they are what
you think they are, and that the fear we felt
was so primal. But I've never been that scared in

(01:58):
my life. We jumped in the card fast. It was
following us. Then I looked back and it was gone.
But he's not done, Elizabeth, because he also wanted to
add I didn't want to see a UFO. It was
horribly designed.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
He scared him though. It got the job done totally.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
I just love that he sees this UFO and like
half the time he's like irritated. Then he's critiquing it.
He's telling it to like blow off like a hunk
if you're horny. I mean, like he's just hilarious. Just
sitting on the side of the freeway, not drinking beer. Yeah,
just sitting there with it anywhere. That's garra Mo del toro. Ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Ridiculous is what that is? Do you wonder what else
is ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (02:33):
God? I came here for it. I drove across town for.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
It, selling the taj Mahal three times. Oh yes, this

(03:00):
is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
He and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Oh you damn right, I know.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I am con artists.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
No, you're talking about language.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, we've been very focused on North American Australian and
European criminals, like pretty much English speaking areas of the
world for the most part, because.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
We're English speakers and the newspapers are easiest for us
to research, exactly. I try to do the translating on
the French ones, but some of them when you go
past that, I don't trust the translations because I can
read a little French, right, But like if we're getting
into like the new I'm like, I don't know if
this is accurate.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I try to do like some Scandinavian ones, and I
just first of all, I'm just gonna kill everyone's names,
and I mean I do that anyway, so it's even worse.
And then second like that, yeah, the translations are so clumsy.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
It's not a romance language. I can't really trust the
translation that I'll be able to go that makes sense exactly.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
And so we've we've kind of ventured out. But look,
what about the rest of the world.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
What about the rest of the go global?

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Baby? So no culture is crime free, of course, you know,
if there's humans, there's crime, crime, and so but I
want to take you to the subcontinent to India. Yes, Ininja,
as they said, and it's there that we're going to
meet a legendary swindler and con man. Legend.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
This guy's legend you mentioned Mahal. You already got my age.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, he's a gentleman who pulled off frauds, capers, multiple
prison escapes. Yeah, he's your kind of guy. I'm talking
about Nilal. He's a legend. As I said, Now, he was.
He was born Mitilesh Kumar Strivistava and that was in
nineteen thirteen. Okay, so that's where we are. So Mitilesh,

(04:47):
this auspicious occasion of his birth took place in a
very rural village called Ravia Bangra in the state of
Bihar in India. And so he was the oldest of
two sons of a wealthy landowner and the I also
owned a railroad station from well hooked up. Yeah, but
he was just like a normal kid. He liked playing soccer,

(05:08):
he loved chess.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
So the money didn't change him, is what you're telling me.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Not big on cracking of the books, that was the thing.
So but you know, he's like a smart kid, he's
just not like motivated.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
That's true. A lot of smart kids, right, But see.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Like a rich landowner and railroad station owner generally wants
an overachiever.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Oh sure, yeah, he wants that's.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Slackers in this house. And so one day Mitteles tangled
with a teacher. They had words.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Words are fistical.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Well maybe there's a bit of shoving.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Who's to say they fought, yes and altercation?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, exactly. They had a set to And this was
back in the day when students respected their teachers. Oh
and parents backed up the teachers. Remember that. Yes, it's
not like today, where students and their parents have very
little regard for the underpaid, over extended, highly trained, and
educated individuals who basically sacrifice themselves for the betterment of students.
The educator says, what you know that I'm talking about

(06:06):
K through twelve, which I don't have. I do not
have the metal to do that. I never have, never will.
Like I can't I don't have the legal protection right well,
I mean right now, those teachers, they're treated like garbage
by parents administrators. I have so many friends dealing with
this right now. It's nuts. But anyway, Mike alesh so

(06:26):
he gotten a dust up with his teacher, and his
dad was pissed, like, you don't do that? He got
so mad that he beat Mittilesh.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Dang with a cane or something like with.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Implements or his fists or something. And that's part of
the back in the day that I can't get behind. Yes,
the corporal punishment, telling you kids these days anyway.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Do you like more of just a shame game?

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, kids with their TikTok mental health diagnosis and their
stupid slaying and anyway, Middlesh, Hello, hello, Mittilesh. So one
day sent him to the bank to deposit some checks
for him. So he's just like an errand boy in
the neighborhood.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
So the neighbor sends Mittelesh to the back.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
He's like, you there, mitt Alesh, go deposit these checks.
You're rich.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
You know what a check is?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Like, how lazy do you have to be? Use the app, buddy?
So he deposit checks these days. So mitth Alesh he
looked at the checks. He looks at the dude's signature,
and he's like, this is so easy to forge.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
He's like, I don't like schoolwork, but I can do this.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, this is not a complicated signature. And I like chess,
you know, I like to you know, maneuver around game.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Systems.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Right, so he like practices the neighbor's signature. He has
that skill in his pocket. He starts withdrawing money from
the account for his own use, like, oh, this guy
wrote me a check, and pretty soon he'd stolen more
than a thousand rupees.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Oh is that a lot?

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, I guess. And eventually then the neighbor finds out
and gets angry. Mittlelesh is fifteen at the time. Nice
and between getting busted for a check fraud and a
dad that loved to dole out whoopins yes, he's like,
you know what, I got to skip town.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, he's going to military school next anyway.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, exactly. And so he goes off to Calcutta, Kolkatta.
It was Calcutta. He didn't know a soul there. He
gets there, he enrolls in the university, starts studying for
his bases.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Kid himself in Colcatta. Yeah wow right, and he rolled.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
And he starts studying to get a bachelor's of Commerce.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Damn right.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
He had side hustles, so he got a brief gig
as a stockbroker, like explain that. And then he tried
to set up a cloth business and that didn't really
pan out.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
But while he was imagine there's a lot of competition
in India for cloth, think, so I kind of that.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, he gets a taste for it and you see
how he uses it in the future. So while he's
he's studying, he meets this wealthy local businessman, Kashav Rohm
and he tells him like, Hey, Rom, guess what, I'm
a private tutor. He's like, that's good for you, and
he Mitteles pulls out He's like, quote authentic looking testimonials

(09:01):
from supposedly satisfied parents as proof of his badass tutoring skills.
He's like, come on up in this. And so Rom,
he looks at the paperwork. He's totally convinced you're hired.
You'd be perfect for this.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
My dumb kids need you.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well, Rob, he has these two kids and he wants
some learned up good and so, after a couple of
months on the job, meet Alesh. He asked if he
could borrow some money to buy more books and Rom
was like, nah, here's what you have. Mick alash lost
it really Oh yeah, you I thought you were in
it to win it with your kids and their academic careers.

(09:37):
And then he starts to question, Yeah, he questions Rom's
commitment to sparkle motion. So he quits. And not just that,
he also vowed to get revenge. I'm not kidding you.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Over some books.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Uh huh. This is your people, they are, they told her,
So take a step back. It's amazing this guy loses
his slippers. We're not getting book money. He's like, I'm
gonna destroy you if it's the last thing I do.
We need arithmetic workbooks. How could you have forsaken us?

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Not even his kids? Not even his kids?

Speaker 2 (10:09):
So mittles, he gets to work. He somehow manages to
get a job as headmaster of the school where Rom's
kids go.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Get out, like.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Did he use his fake resume transcript recommendations? You bet
your life he did. He faked all the documents. He
rolls in there. He's like, you know, you'd be a
fool enough to hire me. And so now he's the
education final boss life and like he could make or
break the rom kids academic chances.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
And he can make him buy some books.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Totally like he's the big dogs. Saron. He walks in.
So Rom found out that Mittelesh was in charge of
the school and begs him for forgiveness, like, oh my god,
I just I brushed you off.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
To make time for my kids alone.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
And then he those to him, He's like, you know what,
I will hire you away from the school. I'm going
to pay you more than you're making now if you
come be a tutor again, do.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
The job that I got mad at you about, and
I'll pay you more.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
And I'll pay you more.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
So mith ales is, how did this guy get rich?

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I don't know, well, not for long. Mid Alege agrees
quits the school job, which also he probably has no
idea what he's doing.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
He can barely keep it because I mean, yeah, howd
you get in?

Speaker 2 (11:22):
But that was just the beginning of his revenge plot
the first act. So this is around nineteen thirty seven,
and there was a cloth shortage in the area.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
He's like, this is like he's in his mid twenties.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, he was born in nineteen thirteen and so twenty four. Yeah,
we're at thirty seven.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
This is great. Yeah, so head master in his early twenties.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, there's this cloth shortage in the area.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Now he's a tutor a yeah, back to tutoring.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Things were about to get super bad in the area.
Because like just six years later was the Bengal Famine
of nineteen forty three. Yeah, and so somewhere between one
and three million people died of starvation, malaria, general crappy conditions.
The agricultural economy in the area was really stagnant, but
the population's exploding. And so this is in the run

(12:06):
up to this. And then also you throw in in
forty three you have the you know, World War two
accompanying inflation. They had messed up rice imports because of
the Japanese occupation of Burma as it was called. Then
a couple of natural disasters thrown in there, this expanding
social stratification, whatever horrific perfect storm is exactly So that's

(12:26):
on the horizon for Calcutta. When in nineteen thirty seven
there was the cloth shortage. So mith Alesh told Ram like, Buddy,
I have a cousin from Bombay now Mumbai who just
got into town and he wants to sell two hundred
bales of cloth on the black market. Like, hello, everybody,
I'm new in town. But you know, I was just

(12:48):
thinking like would you be kind of cool?

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Would you be might need that?

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah? You want in he says Mittelesh says he will
sell the cloth directly to Ram for around four hundred
and fifty thousand rupees.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
That's rupees rupees. Wow, that seems like a lot. I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
I didn't do the conversion because I didn't want. I
couldn't do the conversion from then to now. It's just
too much for my small brain.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
I feel. So I'm gonna say it's a lot based
on your previous it sounds like amount of rupees that
you said.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
It sounds a lot. Rom stoked.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
He's like, four fifty k I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
I'm in. And then mit Alesh remembered, oh, you know what,
my cousin's already back in Bombay. Crap, what are we
going to do? No worries Mith Alesh. He offers to
go to Bombay personally guarantee that his cousin's two hundred
bales were delivered right to Rom. So he's like, he's
not here in town, but I'll be the middleman. Rom's like, yeah, sure,
but you know what, I'm going to send my agent

(13:43):
with you to finalize the deal, to be the one
to carry the money.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
So had that going on.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
The two guys they go to Bombay, mitt Lesh and
this agent the agent, and this is according to India
Today quote on the journey, Mittalleesh had cleverly though casually
regaled the agent with stories of Bombay's tough police force
and the ruthless elements in the underworld who had no
compunctions about dispatching any outsider who dared to poach on
their preserves. So they check into the hotel, they make

(14:13):
plans to visit the mill where the deal's going to
go down. The agent he was like down for some
black market dealings in theory, yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
But.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
He hears all the stories and now he's crazy nervous,
like something terrible could happen.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
And then what he got his imagination cooking.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
They're breaking the law, there's no protection. So the agent,
he whimps out, stays back at the hotel. He gives
myth Alesh the money to go do the deal and
it's like, I'll wait for you here and then you
come back and it'll be great. And so off goes
myth Alesh with nearly half a million rupees in his pocket.
Did he go to the warehouse.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'm gonna go with my second answer of no, he
did not.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
You're correct, there was no warehouse. But we knew that, yes,
you knew that. Instead, myth Alesh went back to his
own village and he walks into his house.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Climbed on top of one of those trains filled with
people and gone.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Gone, gonezers. He goes into his house and hands his
dad one hundred thousand.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Rupees Wow, good son, and.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Tells him, you know what, I've become a major shareholder
in a big company in Calcutta. Like he hasn't been back, yeah,
and so he ran off yeah, and then he turns
around goes back to Calcutta. So he's just like walks in,
drops one hundred k It's like, look at me now, dad,
and then off he.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Goes, Hey, did any of your other kids wet your beak?

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Like that's right, that's right. So the dad looks out
the window and Kats in the cradle starts playing while
his solitary tear ran down his cheek. So, meanwhile, back
in Calcutta, meeth Alesh was home, but so is Rom,
and Rom was pissed because like, yeah, the agent finally
must have dawned on Himlingh.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Figured out what happened. Yeah, yeah, he's got no yards
of fabric.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
He's got no money, right, so rom he knew he'd
been had and when he heard myth Alesh was back
in town, it was on snapped his fingers and his
henchmen appeared. I would love to have henchmen.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
I know.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
We have these interments.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Just picking the health care for them, it's a whole
thing because they have real needs for paperwork. They're constantly
getting injured.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
We've got these, we got these interns, but they're not
very intimidating, and like some of them, their weapons skills
are goofy dogs and most of them I want, I want.
We got some though. They know how to they know
how to work Instagram, yes, so congratulations to them. But
I want intimidating muscle to do my bidding, like brave
the cluster f parking lot up the hill and pick

(16:36):
up my ice coffee from Pete. But no, the interns,
they don't like that parking lot. It's too hectic. I
have to do it for myself. You're getting college credits
for this. Guys. You don't even answer the emails, and
some of you lick yourself and shuttle over the place anyway, MILESH.
So the henchmen, they caught up with them. They drag
him over to Rom's place. Myth Alesh said he lost
the money when he'd been chased by police.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
So they go over to his place and he's sitting there.
They and they come back to man.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
He's like, the cops showed up at the warehouse, they
came after me. I lost the money. It flew out
of my pockets and.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
You know, and then I got luckily back home. Scary,
and so I'm the victim here.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Right, And Rom's like, don't care. He says, Smith Alesh,
you have four days to repay me or I'm going
to kill you. No, not a one percent on my
watch there. So myth Alesh, of course, he has this
wily plan. He went to the cops. He accused Rom
of having threatened to kill him after he had refused
to help him with black market deals. So he turns

(17:35):
it around like Rom's the originator of the deal. And
I said, no way, buddy, I don't do that kind
of stuff, and he said, I'm going to kill you.
So that's what he tells the cops.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
And then he successfully was able to get the half
million rupees out of him or whatever.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Because well, he doesn't mention the half million. He just
says he threatened to kill me. He's like ps, Rom
has a lot of shady business dealings because like they met,
may or may not have been fiction. Myth Alesh may,
I'm inclined to believe that Rom is already a little
dirty if he hears that a black market cloth deal.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
Representative. Yeah, change, he said a punk.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
So Rom and his henchmen they get arrested, but the
police spoke to Rom. Myth Aleshe gets arrested too, and
he spent some time in jail.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
I forgo. Rom has the money degree, and pomps.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
I think so. Yeah. So that same year, myth Alesh
gets arrested again for stealing nine tons of iron.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Well, he saw the you first steal a train to
put the iron on.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
He saw these iron joints on the street, like a
big stack for a project.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
Right, I assume you don't mean you don't mean marijuana cigarettes.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
A bunch of iron marijuana.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Cigarettes, a little decorative marijuana cigarettes.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Marijua, nine tons of paperweight. He saw iron joints on
the street that were like joined peoples and irons, and
they're for like this building thing, And so he forged
documents saying that they belonged to him, and then he
sold them to an a metal dealer if you want.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
These another town.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, he gets convicted and sentenced to six months in jail.
He'd barely been out when he gets arrested again and
he goes in for another eight months for what who.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Knows, financial crimes. She's always like less than a year exactly.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
So we went around for trying to con sex workers
for a bit, but then he wound up using them
as accomplices in his cons instead of victims, because they
were like, we're gonna we're gonna learn you really quick.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
This doesn't happen they bring us in or we're gonna
turn Yeah, and so.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
He he has these more cons. He's doing cons like
he wouldn't believe. Let's take a break. I'm going to
fill you in on this next chapter of his life
of crime.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
I'm taking this cat.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
So meth alesh. Yeah, he will later be known as Natoirlal.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
But I was wondering we'll get there.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
So here's how India Today characterized his game quote. Natwarlal's
modus operandi was relatively simple. His initial operations involved the
swindling of goods from jewelry shops and large departmental stores
in the cities he visited. He would first open a
bank account in a large bank. He would then win
the confidence of the shopkeepers by paying for his purchases

(20:26):
by checks, which were promptly cashed. Once he'd earned their trust,
Natowilal would withdraw his bank account and on the same
day by large amounts of jewelry and expensive items from
the stores, which he could sell later. He was careful, though,
to limit his purchases to a few thousand rupees so
as to combat any suspicion that might arise. He would
then disappear from the city. Another of his favorite cons

(20:49):
was to open multiple bank accounts in a particular city
in the name of a fictitious company. He would then
hire an office complete with expensive looking furniture and well
groomed secretaries. Would gradually befriend the bank managers where he
had accounts by whining and dining them. Once he had
established a personal relationship, he would put in requests for
large overdrafts, and when the request was complied with, he

(21:11):
would quietly disappear.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
So he would do a big house on bank managers.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah and he's laying all this money in the setup
for it, you know, like he opens a big bank
account to swindle the jewelry stores and he's paying for
the jewelry for the first set of it.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Totally, it is brilliant. I said big, I mean big store,
you know, from the sting, which is basically you create
a fake business or fake front and then you know,
but he's doing on banks and it's so brilliant because
there's some of the most suspicious people you have going.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
And whining and dining and he's winning them over.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, it's at therego. I love it.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Brilliant. One of his favorite cons to pull involved posing
as a government official. He would then try and sell
buildings to foreigners.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
So you hear a British accent.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Oh he allegedly sold the taj Mahal three times.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Oh my god, do we know, like how or to who?

Speaker 2 (22:03):
I wish I wish I could find out to whom
he was selling these properties. I would love to know
who tried to buy the taj Mahal. Marriotte Bonvoy. Maybe
he sold the Red Fort two times, and the President
of India's official residence as well as the Parliament, House
of India along with its five hundred plus.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
Members Americans or the buyers. I'm just I'm just putting
it out there.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Probably because I think the British, you know, they knew
that you couldn't buy it.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
I don't know, well, they had already kind of like
they already bought it, subjugated the whole area, so they're like, look.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
His other big scams involved rail freight. Remember his dad
worked on the railroad, but not worked.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
Worked.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
He knew how everything worked though work, work worked. I
just keep saying that word. And he knew where there
were gaps in the system. So he'd go to stations
and he would check out the goods that were waiting
to be moved. Then he would create these like false
release orders and false checks and then take them. So
he sees what's out there waiting to get picked up,
quickly writes up the documents like, oh, those are mine,

(23:06):
I'll take those now, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
So the ink is still wet.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yes, what did he steal doing this?

Speaker 3 (23:11):
What did he steal? Elizabeth?

Speaker 2 (23:12):
A harmonium?

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Wait, like one of those glass like like Benjamin Franklin
Organs where you turn the glass.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Yeah, it was worth one hundred and thirty five rupees.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
That's cool. Ben's engine like a Mercedes Ben.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, he just sees an engine.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
He's like, we'll take it.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
I got a box of screws worth a thousand rupees
that was worth more than the harmonium box of screws.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
You can do a lot more of that.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
But it's small potatoes, so it's not like he sees like, oh,
this gigantic shipment. It's just little stuff here and there
that's easy enough for the pocket.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, and it holds value all the stuff, he says,
I mean yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Well, then he started getting into bigger stuff. This is
again according to India Today quote. He would book railway
wagons for allegedly transporting sugar and other commodities. He would
pay the minimum transportation costs and then sell the consignment
to buyers at the destination by showing them forged receipts
for the supposed goods. When the consignment finally arrived, they
were nothing but bags of sand or bricks, no sugar

(24:06):
to be found. Another quote. One of his best known
stings was in the fifties, he gained the confidence of
a manager in the Punjab National Bank by posing as
a big businessman. He would book one bag of pulses
or rice to be sent by freight to Calcutta by
the railways. On the railway receipt he changed one bag
to one hundred or more and obtained advances from the

(24:26):
bank on these receipts. He rapidly built up such advances,
honoring only a few of them, and even got one
of the bank branches to advance money. When the total
reached six hundred and fifty thousand rupees, he abruptly cozy
account and vanished.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Did it work?

Speaker 2 (24:42):
He got at so like as before, there's this textile
shortage going on in India. He went to the textile
commissioner in Bombay, pretending to be a purchase officer, and
he brought with him a guy fellow by the name
of natilal Oh real name, that's the guy's name.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
Way to be confuse, he brings himself with himself.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
He brings a man named Tolal and that's the guy's
real name.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
So you think you pretend to be my name and
I'll be you know, at.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
This point he's still mith Alesh.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
And he and.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
The guys approached manufacturers who were keen to get out
of turn allotments of cotton. So mitt Alesh and Natty
for real took advance payments from these manufacturers. They forged
railway release certificates and then told the dealers to collect
the goods from a certain train station. Okay, and then

(25:35):
they get to the station. Is the cotton there?

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (25:37):
No, mit got busted on this one. Nilal got away. Now. However,
according to the India Times, the police thought that the
man that they caught our Mitteleh Wasntilal okay, and so
that became his name, and from that moment on he
was Natwilal or Natty Ice or Natty Gan or Natty Bumla.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
In m So Meta Lush is met Lesh up to
this point. Yeah, and then he has his buddy who
goes with him, Natty. Yeah, Natty gets away and then
people decide met a Lesh is not the met Lesh
who got caught. He's the naughty who got away.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah. So our guy Metelesh gets booked and they're like, oh, no, Twilal,
you don't have any priors, we'll book you in. He's like,
you're right, I don't have any priors.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
So he.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Oh wow, wiping out all of his stuff. So they
think that Mitlesh is on the run out there. Yes,
and he becomes he becomeslal So in the fifties and sixties,
those were good conning years for him.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
I bet and he he's got a blank slate, latebla
rasa man.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
He struck all across the country and it happens again
for him too. It's said that in nineteen sixty three
he managed the theft of goods worth ten million rupees.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Nineteen sixty three, sixties in his early fifties. Yeah, he's
just like a vet. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
He was wanted in seven different states under thirty different
names because he realized, oh wait, I used the other.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Name all thing. He's like a Japanese calligraphy.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
People still they're like, oh, it's that guy in a
twirlol that we busted for the cotton thing.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
They're still tying it back that name.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Maybe. One place he pulled a lot of his shipping
switcheru cons was Lucknow, and it seems like a really
lovely place. By the way, what was unlucky for the
city of Lucknow was very lucky for Natwirlal. There was
a huge flood there in nineteen sixty one of the
worst on record for a city that seems to flood

(27:35):
quite a bit. So the Gumpti River overflowed its banks
and the city was submerged under meters of water. Why
was that lucky for Natty?

Speaker 3 (27:44):
He floats.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, all of his case files in that city were
washed away and destroyed, yet another clean slate, so there's
no records. But it wasn't just lucknow that didn't have records.
Bahar State where he's from, has no files of his
crime past the age of forty four.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Really, yeah, they just gave up.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
I don't know, paid stole them, who knows. It doesn't
mean he wasn't criming though. But he gets arrested and
sent to jail many many times, and speaking to jail
he had a gift for escaping.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
I was just about to ask.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, he said that no prison in India could actually
hold him.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
I bet not.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
No.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
And after all, like, as long as there's a dishonest cop,
you can always figure out a way to get up.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
This is true. So for example, and where there is poverty,
there's going to be dishonest cops.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yes, there. It is early fifties. He gets arrested on
three charges of cheating. I don't know what kind of
cheating is cheating. On his way back to jail from court,
he convinced the cops escorting him to let him visit
his wife, who he said was at a nearby house. Okay, like,
you're about to lock me up, please, I need to
see her.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
The cops agree, here's the love of my life. Give
me only five minutes with her. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
So the cops are like, okay, and we'll be respectful.
We'll stay outside the front door of the house to
guard it while you go have your last intimate moments
with your wife.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Now do you think this is like a conjuct?

Speaker 2 (29:01):
I'm wondering if they stood outside, if maybe that's what
they thought Inside he climbed out of a skylight and escape. Zoinks,
there's another good escape story, Zaren.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Oh wow, you stuck it up on me.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
I want you to pick.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
How are you always able to do that?

Speaker 2 (29:17):
I know every time. It's February nineteen fifty seven. Lucknow,
capital city of Uttar Pradesh. It is ten years after
India was liberated from British rule. There's a general election
coming up. Lucknow is a bustling city of almost half
a million souls, A blend of Hindu and Muslim cultures.
The vibe of lucknow is one of beauty and art

(29:41):
and literature, graceful living. You are on your way to work.
As you pass through the marketplace, you hear a transistor
radio playing what sounds like an old raga. The tune
sounds like when your mother used to hume one that
accompanied a gazol, a poem about love and loss. I
love gazal's, by the way, it's usually couplets and and
the poet hides their name phonetically in the final cup.

(30:02):
But anyway. You buy a kebab from a vendor and
continue on to work, a bus passing you on the
busy street. When you arrive at work, it's quiet, just
the hum of a fan and the occasional opening and
closing of heavy doors. You work at the local jail.
It's an ugly place and a beautiful city, and an
ugly job that someone must do, and that someone is you.
It's been entertaining at work lately, though, after all, you

(30:25):
have the infamous Natwilol in your confines. You clock in
and then begin your rounds. As you walk down the
hall of the cell block, prisoners mumble and flip through
pages of books in their cells. One starts to clank
a cup against the bars, but you shoot him a
dirty look and he immediately stops. You smile and thanks.
As you pass in a twilaal's cell, you do a
double take. He's in there, but he's dressed in a

(30:47):
uniform one for a deputy superintendent of police. He motions
for you to come closer. You approach the bars and
ask him how he got the uniform. He tells you
not to worry about it. He then passes you a
briefcase through the bars. You open it and it's crammed
full of rupees. Your eyes get wide. Take it, he says,
and then open this door and let me out of here.

(31:09):
This is ridiculous. But then he leans in and whispers
to you in the long road of love, why do
you wail? Just watch and wait how things unveil. It's
a line from a gazal by Lucknow's oone mire taki mir.
It's the ghazal that swam in your head as you
made your way to work. You have no choice. You
must let him out. You take the briefcase from him

(31:30):
and unlock the cell door as it creaks open. The
Toilal nods to you and breezes by, heading for the
front door of the prison. So brazen, he has to
walk by two other guards in order to get out
of the building. He puffs up his chest and struts
by them. They salute him and go on with their days.
You go to the window and you watch as he
heads to a waiting car. He gets in and it

(31:51):
begins to roll away from the curb, but then it
sputters and backfires and grinds to a halt. The Toilal
jumps out and looks back and forth on the street
panic though. He sees a passing hearse and he raises
his hand at it. The hearse stops, the Toilal sticks
his head through the passenger side window. He and the
undertaker have a quick conversation. Then the Toilal jumps into

(32:12):
the hearse and it tears away down the road. You
head back to your desk and surreptitiously open the briefcase.
Away from view. There are rupees on top of the pile,
but you realize that the rest of the case is
just filled with cut up newspaper. You chuckle to yourself
as it falls to the floor. So to Twilal. He
used variations of this trick, telling a guard or official

(32:33):
that there would be money waiting for him if he'd
help him with an escape, when in fact there was
no money. So that's that's a common thing.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
Also, I'm assuming he had to con a previous guard
to get the uniform and then.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Previous in them.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
Yeah, exactly, and also get the briefcase.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, someone's got to get the uniform smuggle it into him. Yeah,
the whole thing. So he's got multiple people that he's.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Work a pyramid scheme of like little minor in prison
scams and cons.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
I love it, exactly exactly. Let's take a break and
after these beautiful ads, I'm going to tell you all
about his next adventures.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Ooh, hot buttery ads. Zaren Elizabeth over here.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yay, it's early nineteen seventy five.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Oh, I've got to pay my taxes at least.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
In this story. I don't know if it's true in
the world outside the studio, but where we are right now,
early nineteen seventy.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Ah, that explains the incense totally.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Does Natwarlos had just escaped from jail yet again. He
traveled to a new city under a fake name, and
he would go around telling everyone that he was a
visiting businessman from Bombay. How do you do?

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Course, that's his move, he said that before it.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
He uses it all the time. And then once again,
he builds a relationship with a local sugar dealer. He's like, where,
who are all the big dealers in town? They're like, oh,
that guy over there, Robbie, he's super big into sugar. Like, okay,
what's up? And so he placed an order with him
for two hundred and thirty five bags of sugar worth
eighty two thousand rupees to be delivered to his business

(34:18):
in Bombay. Just send it to my office. I love sugar.
I can't get enough. And he's like, okay, eighty two
grand all right, well here's four thousand, and I'm gonna
pay you the rest when I get it, because like,
I don't trust.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
You, so like five percent down payment essentially. Yeah okay.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
And so instead he goes to Bombay and he meets
with the president of the Bombay Sugar Merchants Association and
he convinces him that he was a close friend of
the president's recently deceased uncle and that he has two
hundred and thirty five bags of sugar to sell. He's like,
I am so sorry to hear about your uncle Rip.

(34:55):
He was a very good friend him. Two hundred and
thirty five bags of sugar.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
He would have wanted them.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
You're the president of the Bombay Sugar Merchants Association. I
was liked, this makes so much sense. So they agree
on a price, and then the sugar comes to the
train station. Toilal he hands over forged receipts and gives
the sugar to the Merchant's Association president and he he said,
you know what, I know, we agreed on whatever, Like

(35:22):
you know, ninety thousand, I'll take I'll do this for
sixty thousand rupees and we can figure out the rest
with future business deals. This is just a good beginning
of our relationship. So the President's like, I got a
great deal on this sugar.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Got a new business friend.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah. And then Toila puts down four thousand on the
on the shipment, So he's walking away with whatever. Sixty
thousand minus four thousand is fifty four fifty six seventy
eight thousand dollars. It's not rupees one eighteen thousand, Yeah,
fifty fifty or whatever. Fifty six thousand rupees. So he

(36:00):
wand that's a great deal. And he got to play
a part he wants to play.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
His character got to wear a fun suit.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
So but then he's not done. He's still in his
fun suit, this a little neuro jacket. He then he
writes a letter to the first sugar dealer.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Okay, oh yeah, the one.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, and he's like, you know what, I want to
buy another one hundred and fifty thousand dollars rupers of
sugar from you.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
That works so good last year.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
I still haven't paid for the first but like dang.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Fork it over. He got that good sugar.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
So before the dealer understands it not only was the
offer fake, but that he wouldn't get paid for the
original shipment, the tila long gone. So he did it.
He got through, sells another one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to the sugar association.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
And on the third one, guys like this is the
one I'd like to be paid on. Yeah, Hello, Hello, Hello.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Michelle, Hello Michelle. So two years later, sure, he gets caught, jailed,
sentenced to twenty six years in prison.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
He needs to break.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Out, Yeah for a con. Back in nineteen fifty six.
Oh so it wasn't even like the seventy five sugar con.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Yeah, it wasn't like recent stuff. So I've been holding
a grudge.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
It was when it was back in nineteen fifty six
he conned a bank into giving him four hundred and
fifty thousand rupees.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
I mean, come on, that was then. This is now.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
So now he's in custody and he gets sent back
to Bombay for another pending trial.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
I'm telling you yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
And then once he's there, he complains of kidney issues.
He's like, ow, am my kidneys.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Got this pain in the back.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
And they're like, you know, we're decent folk, will take
you to the doctor. On the way to the doctor,
he convinces the constable accompanying him to make a quick
stop at a fancy hotel.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
I was going to a joke like, He's like, we
just make one. He really did that? Can we make
one quick stop?

Speaker 2 (37:43):
They're like okay, And he's at this super fancy hotel.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
He's a nice place. I need to go get.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Some money there that I have there, and I'm going
to give you some of it as thanks, because you've
taken such good care of me. How my kidneys, We're.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Going to need money for the commissary in the hospital.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
And so at the hotel he tells the com now
my kidney wait in the lobby while I go upstairs
to get the money. And the constable, who probably lost
his job, was like okay.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
So he says, you're kidding me, an escape person.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Completely and Natirle is like holding his side in his back.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
He's like, God, really milking it.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Kidneys are acting up, dad, And off he goes. And
so the you know, constable's sitting there in the lobby.
Ten minutes, thirty minutes, thirty minutes go by, and then
he realizes I think he I think he left. Do
you take a Napes magazine people watching?

Speaker 3 (38:35):
You know what I'm thinking?

Speaker 2 (38:36):
I bet he was great people watching.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I bet so.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, nataral wall is gone. He wouldn't be seen or
like at least identified, for another seven or eight years,
and a lot of people thought he was dead. One
of the deputies who dealt with him over the years
described him as quote a wonder man, though I never
forgot even for a second that he was a cheat
and a criminal. He is articulate and erudite and armed
with a sugarcoated tongue. He is an excellent judge of

(39:01):
character and makes friends very easily.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
I love these cops who have these like homore erotic
crushes on the people that they chase. It's just like
he's like, Oh, he's the kind of man I'd want
to be if I was on the other side of
the line.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Well, and I think that part of it is they
must be dealing with absolutely just brick dumb people all day.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yes, you know, just dumber some of their coworkers have.
And then the criminals they're busted.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Like the criminals, you see people that do stuff and
you think, when in a million years did you think
that would work? And they're just stupid, and so they
you know, like they deal with that. And then when
they have someone who kind of poses a challenge and
is you know, this guy's actually really smart and if
they don't hurt people, they generally not hurting people. And
then you have the notion too that like he's so

(39:48):
charming and he just went we see like you said,
we see this over and over.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
He wears fun suits, he's got he'll.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Traveled, prominent. Adam z Apple well so anyw wa n
twirlal not dead at this point, I guess not.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
In the mid eighties he found a printer who was
willing to print him falsified bank drafts, okay, and then
he gets these two other buddies and they help him out.
They help him hide the money that he stole, and
now he's ready to start a new.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Scam, new name, new scam.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
So in nineteen eighty six, he began targeting jewelers for
thefts once again, but this kind he's using aliases. He's
like making up even crazier stories.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
He's seventy years old too. I love this because people
are going to trust a seventy year old man. Now
he's all of a sudden got the gravitazed. Oh, he
wouldn't be counning me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
In one theft, he goes to a jeweler in deli
and he tells him that he's the personal secretary to
then Finance Minister VP Singh.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Totally believable.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, I mean here's this whole Yeah, and that Singh
wanted to buy necklaces for his son's upcoming wedding.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Yeah, I'd buy that.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah, And that makes sense. And so then natwirl Wal
he chooses these really expensive necklaces.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
Befitting the son of Singh.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Sure for a wedding, like it's going to be this
lavish event. He and the shop owner they go to
a nearby bank and with the shop owner outside once again,
come with me wait out here. Natwirlal goes inside and
then says he's going to have the bank draft for
the amount oh drawn up. But remember he had those
dudes writing up the fake ones. So he gives the
jeweler a draft for eighty two thousand rupees and left

(41:23):
with the necklaces. And then later you know, guy goes
to the bank. Sorry, those are fake.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
We don't know that paper right.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
That's this is another per India Today quote. Dressed in
a spotless white shirt and trousers, Natwirlal posed as a
personal assistant to the Union Finance Minister nd Tiwari and
went to a watch dealer in New Delhi's busy Connaught Place.
He told the proprietor, Sorenda Sharma that the Congress Parliamentary

(41:52):
Party was having an important meeting in which the members
were to be presented watches. So I mean that seems
like yeah, I can see them giving out like commemorative watch.

Speaker 3 (42:01):
As for this and I like that. They point out
that he was wearing a spotless white outfit, oh, because
they're like, look, this place is so hot and there
are so many people. You know how hard it is
to have a spotless white outfit, just maintained, no sweat,
no stains, nobody's bumped into you, no smudges. And he's like, clearly,
this is a very wealthy person, look at this white outfit.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
And he backs it up because the next day he
comes back in a chauf for driven car. Yeah, and
he tells the store owner, Sharma, you know what, pack
up ninety three watches for me. You're thinking like, this
is a big payday. I'm not going to be like,
I don't know about that. So he and then one
of Sharma's employees they go to a nearby bank and
then this is where you know he's still in character.

(42:44):
I'm going to have to get a bank draft to
pay for the watches. The watch employee does he go
into the bank with.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Him, I'm gonna say you no. No.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
He stands outside, and I'm wondering too if it's like
I'm not I'm not very familiar with like cast system things,
but is it.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
Maybe that was I didn't want to say it, but
that is this. Sometimes they're just kind of not allowed.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
They're not allowed in the bank. Yeah, so I could
I could see that happening. So the guys outside natwiral
comes out with appears to be you know, it appears
to be a draft for more than thirty two thousand
rupees and then again so off he goes with all
these watches. Sharma tries to deposit it, finds out its
forge in another He goes to another city, Varanasi, and

(43:24):
he calls himself Unbika Ponde and he said he was
the says he's the purchase officer for a district judge.
And you know what, the judge wants to buy his
staff watches.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
A lot of them.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
They loves to watch much watch as I.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Love bureaucracy and watches is his new move.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
He's like, he probably sees it and he's like these jackets.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
No one questions this.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yeah, So he gives the store owner fake bank draft
twenty five thousand rupees. This time gets eighty watches in return.
So I don't think these are his price.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
And that was in the watch business. He watching and
he goes out and opens his jacket.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
That's all watches inside.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
I ever see those guys anymore. I know, you actually
see them in cities. I remember seeing people in cities
who had had like.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
The little tables, yes, with all the fake Rolex watches.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah, my brother was my brother, someone in my family
bought a fake Rolex in Washington, d c. Off a
table in the New.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
York was classes Detroit, La San Francisco. I mean it
was amazing, exactly. I missed those days.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Oh good eighty seven. He finally he gets caught at
a fifth shop, okay, and he'd introduced himself as an
officer of the state legislature, and he was there to
buy fifty.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Five Windings watches, watches.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
And these are only worth twenty eight thousand rupees. But
there again gifts for employees. But then he goes to
like hand the bank draft over to the owner. And
I don't know what had happened with his accomplices, if
maybe they'd fallen off or he thought he didn't need
them anymore. He hands the bank drafts to the owner
of the shop, and they looked so fake that the
store owner got suspicious and then went back and quietly called.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
The cops and you can't lose your your paperman. You
got a good forger, you got it.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
He knew it was bad. This is Natwaro later said,
quote the printing was so bad, I myself was wondering
whether anyone would accept it.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
You you know better than that.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
He gets win that, like, oh my god. I think
he called the cops because he hands his terrible paper
and the guy's like, oh yeah, let me go in
the back. So he runs outside. He jumps in a
rickshaw and.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
Then like can you imagine that getting away at a
rich He didn't faster faster the cops caught up.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
They're like walking into what he He didn't have it over.
He didn't have any money on him, and police didn't
know where he kept all the money that he'd stolen
over the years. He told police that he was like
basically Robin Hood. He said he stole only from quote
rich capitalists, and he gave the money to the poor.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Was he the poor?

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Probably he went and broke his dad off one hundred
he did.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
I was kind of I believe him.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
I believe I prefer to spreading it around.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Okay, that's cool, And you.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Know he would get these accomplices or like you know
you got you got talent, you just don't see it.
You could draw up fake bank drafts. I believe in you.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Yes, just trot, just.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Raising the community up. Police doubted the whole robinhood thing,
but like I said, he would sometimes he'd go back
to his home village, not just the one time, and
the town when they knew that he was coming, they
would prepare like this big meal for him. I'm guessing
that he was he would hand out rupees to like
the needy in town.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
Let's go pro robinhood on. Let's say it.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
I like that story better. When he was arrested in
November of nineteen eighty seven, he had over one hundred
open cases against him in eight different Indian states.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Nice in his golden years. He's like, look at that way.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Well, and by that point he had been sentenced at
various times to a total of one hundred and thirteen years,
and like collectively he don't only served about twenty of those,
so like he'd been inside, yeah, but like one hundred
and thirteen. So they arrest him. He says that he's married,
he had been married, and he has a son, but
that they both died. However, it's also said that his

(47:13):
wife was still alive and living in Bihar, and that
his only child was a daughter, and that she married
and lived outside of India. So like, no one can
ever get a straight story out of him.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
I wouldn't believe it. I mean, whatever he says, I
wouldn't believe it. Someone else have to come in and
be like, okay, take take and test my DMA.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Well, then you wonder what about the original Natwirlo.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
If it even is the same person.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Maybe he's the one who's married and has a daughter,
you know who.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Maybe this is a dread pirate Robert situation where he's
just passed on the name to his most accomplished acolyte.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
That could be. You know what it's like, Menudo, They
rotate them in and out. June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety six.
He's eighty four years old.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Okay, you know I love the ages. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
He disappeared from the New Delhi Railway station. He'd been
taken to Delhi from where he'd been in custody for
a medical checkup.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Okay, my kidneys again.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
And at the station, the cops went to drop off
his wheelchair and he was left with a quote jail
sweeper to guard him. It's like a soccer sweeper, like
just any position you need special Yeah, and so he
asked the man for some tea, and like you know,
they're going to respect the elderly, this jail sweeper leaves

(48:21):
to go get some. Natwir Wall suddenly, now able to
walk really easily, just gets up and runs off. So
he's like in a wheelchair. Element kidneys and then off
he goes. That is the last reported public sighting of him.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
Oh wow. He he actually disappears into the crowd like
pro long kuiser.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
They saw completely completely. In total, he escaped from custody
at least ten different times.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
This kind's incredible.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
His legend continued even in death. So in July of
two thousand and nine, his lawyer said he died in
that month of the age of ninety seven, and he
petitioned the court to dismiss the one hundred cases still
pending against his client but his brother because he's dead.
Nataral's brother said that Natir Whal had actually died sometime
in nineteen ninety six, and he couldn't remember the exact day,

(49:08):
but he had personally cremated the body.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
But then you wonder I personally cremated, like not.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Professionally like you know as you do.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
Ah, okay, he brought he did the actual.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Region, the ritual. But here's the thing, like which natoir Wal?

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Yes, which one are we talking about? First?

Speaker 2 (49:22):
I don't believe anybody, And like how long had it
been since his brother saw him? And was that the
favorite brother back? You know, there's so many questions. In India,
the name Natwaral is apparently still used common.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's like, no, they.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
People use it as a pejorative against public officials.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Oh oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
So there's this book The Most Notorious jail Breakers Untold
Stories of Escape Convicts by a Beer Kapor quote. If
you are a manipulative personality in public life, in all likelihood,
you'll be called Natarilal.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Hum.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Yeah. In twenty twenty one, it was reported that in
a fe bill referred to another official as the Natwilal
of Indian politics and call them a liar and cheater?

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Was it mody the Prime Minister?

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I don't know. Aspiring criminals use the name as well.
In twenty eleven, a twenty one year old was arrested
for stealing almost two million rupees from a business bank
account by pretending to be its director. He said he'd
been inspired by the nineteen seventy nine Mister natoir Wal
movie since he was a kid, and that he would
sometimes use Natwarilal as one of his aliases. So what's

(50:30):
this about the movie right now?

Speaker 3 (50:31):
What's dying?

Speaker 2 (50:32):
In nineteen seventy nine, a movie called Mister Natwarlal title
loosely based on his life. Well, the title character everything. Yeah,
the title character was played by the movie superstar amitab Bakchun.
This is according to Wikipedia. He's quote widely recognized as
one of the greatest actors of all time. He is
considered to be amongst the most accomplished and influential actors

(50:54):
in the history of Indian cinema. Now that's Wikipedia, which
means that either he or his agent wrote it. And
I love that for him.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
I would love if that, you know, if it was
actually true and that he was. I have no idea
a really complish.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
I think he is. His family thinks he is would
be great.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
I like the Lawrence Olivier of India poor or trade this.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Category amazing, I'm saying, yeah, so the brando, but the
real Toilal not a fan of the film.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Oh, he's like, I didn't like the cast.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
He said it quote distorted his life.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Well, they said loosely bass and I was upset with that.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
He filed a defamation suit against the movie, but he
withdrew it when he managed to convince the star to
pay him three hundred thousand rupees instead.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
Wait, he shook down the show down.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
The movie star. Yeah, he's like, I hate it.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Give me three three I'll say I love it.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Yeah, I'll leave you alone. In twenty sixteen, a seventy
seven year old former lawyer was arrested for over one
hundred and twenty five crimes and he had this history
of forgery. He was nicknamed super Natoilal. There's also a
more recent adaptation of the movie from twenty to Her
twenty twenty four called Mister Natwirla. There's this like crazy

(52:04):
music video from the film that researcher Marissa found, Like
the main.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Character Bollywood style. Is it like a musical?

Speaker 2 (52:11):
I don't know about the movie. We couldn't I couldn't
find a clip from the movie. We found this music video, okay,
and the main character is this man and the woman.
They have this really hilarious workout scene. It's like a
like a ballad song sure, where she's basically just like
laying on him as he uses various workout machines. So
like he's on an elliptical and she's she's like holding
onto him like a like a baby koala, or like

(52:34):
he's doing push ups and she's laying on his back.
It's really weird the whole you know. So and Marissa
was like, is that how people work out? Like, I
don't know. I don't go to the either. We're like, okay,
I guess that's what happens.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Now happens.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
So, Saren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 3 (52:52):
Oh man, my ridiculous takeaway is I know this sounds
dumb that I should fixate on this, but you talked
about the dad working in the trains. I've always wanted
to go to India and right on top of a
train with a bunch of people, you could do that.
I know it's easy, I know it's an accomplishable goal,
but like it's ridiculous that I want to do that.
And that's the one thing you're telling me all this

(53:12):
stuff and I'm like, man, I gotta I gotta go
do that. I gotta go to India and ride on
the top of a train for like Miles and Miles.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Let's make it happen and we can like we can
record an episode from.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
The live from the top of a train. Well, you
can record it and I'll just yeah, you can be
reasonably seated inside exactly that way. The mic doesn't have
all the feedback from that of the wind. What's your Elizabeth? Uh?

Speaker 2 (53:35):
You know what? This guy didn't seem to hurt anyone
and didn't seem to like scam anyone who couldn't take it,
So A plus plus.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Yeah, always good. That's good in our both books.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
You know what I need?

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Though, what do you need to talk back? I can't
do that for you. Producer Dave, can you help this
lady out?

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Oh? I let you?

Speaker 4 (54:06):
Hey, Elizabeth, Hey, Aaron, I just want to sorry. I
just want to let y'all know that when I was
listening to the LifeLock con episode, I was listening to
an amazing ad break and I heard an ad for
guess what LifeLock by Norton, and I thought it was ridiculous.

(54:29):
By all love this show.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
I think LifeLock loves us.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
I mean I hear that all the time.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
That was like an extended ad for us.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
I don't know that algorithm plugs the ad in during
I just please don't tell LifeLock. I think it is
so funny and ridiculous and I love it. I have it. Uh,
that's it for today. You can find us online at
ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also on social media at
Ridiculous Crime. Email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com and

(55:00):
leave us a talk back please on the iHeart app
reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and
Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Cotton Kingpin Dave Kusten,
starring Emilie Rutger as Judith. Research is by Indian railroad

(55:22):
barons mursa Brown and Andrea song Sharpened Tear. The theme
song is by bribed prison guards Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton.
Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair
and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Under. Executive producers are
famous Indian outlaws Ben Bowen and Nolbur.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
Dis QUI say it one more time crime.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.