Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava (Natwarlal Thug) was born in 1912 in the Siwan district of Bihar. At a very young age, Natwarlal thug had given a glimpse of his exploits. Some child sings well, some dance, while some have such a skill, which is appreciated by everyone.
But Natwarlal Thug was a skilled thief, such a skill that even the owner of the house where he used to steal could not live without praising him.
When Natwarlal Thug was young, he was very good at studying, once a neighbour of Natwarlal Thug gave a check and asked him to bring money from the bank, that check was only ten rupees. Seeing that check, an idea came to Natwarlal Thug’s mind, he looked at the check very carefully, Before going to the bank with the check, Natwarlal Thug practised the signature of that check, after that he went to the bank and brought the money.
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In the next few days, Natwarlal thug withdrew 1000 rupees from his neighbour’s bank account by forging about ten times on the check. When the neighbour came to know about this, he went to the bank and investigated. he came to know that Natwarlal thug had withdrawn money from a fake signed check. But even the bankers were surprised to see that the real and fake signatures are exactly the same.
When the neighbour informed Natwarlal Thug’s father about this act of him, then the father beat up Natwarlal Thug fiercely. Due to which he moved to Kolkata, Natwarlal Thug completed his studies in Kolkata. At the same time, he also started working for a cotton trader. Due to the sharp mind of natwarlal Thug, his boss asked him to give tuition to his child.
One day Natwarlal Thug asked his boss to borrow some money for his studies. But his boss refused to give him the money. After that, he cheated his boss of four lakh rupees in the purchase of cotton bales and he ran away from there.
Natwarlal Thug, who had studied law, had a good idea of the weaknesses of law. That’s why he used the same weaknesses of law as his weapon and carried out hundreds of frauds in the name of big leaders.
Natwarlal Thug tried to scam several tonnes of steel sheets of railways, but could not succeed. Natwarlal Thug was probably the first thug who did a scam by taking the name of the Prime Minister “Rajiv Gandhi“, hearing which Rajiv Gandhi was also shocked.
Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister at that time while Narayan Dutt Tiwari used to be the Finance Minister in his cabinet. Natwarlal Thug reached a famous watch shop in a white-coloured Ambassador car and introduce himself as PA of Narayan Dutt Tiwari.
Natwarlal Thug told the shop owner that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has called a cabinet meeting and wanted to give a watch as a gift to all the people who took part in that meeting. So, show me the best watches. Natwarlal Thug selected the best watches from the shop and ordered around 93 watches.
The next day Natwarlal Thug came with two ambassador cars and took the manager of the shop along with the watches. After going inside the office, he returned after a while with a check, on which an amount of 35,935 was written.
The next day, when the watch shop owner deposited the check in the bank, it was found that the check was forged. It didn’t take a long time for a shopkeeper to understand that he had become a victim of a scam, by coincidence the shopkeeper had also heard the stories of Natwarlal thug.
Once Natwarlal Thug got an opportunity to meet President Rajendra Prasad. Even president Dr Rajendra Prasad was surprised when Natwarlal thug signed same to same as him. After this Natwarlal Thug wrote a letter to the President of India, in which he had clearly written that if the Government of India supports him, then he can pay off all the debt of India. Although this letter was thrown in the dustbin, but the discussion of his courage was considered to be the greatest thing of that time.
Natwarlal Thug had sold Rashtrapati Bhavan by signing the President of India. Natwarlal thug not only sold Rashtrapati Bhavan in a fake way but also sold the Parliament of India. Natwarlal Thug’s scam was not limited to Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhavan only, he had also sold the Red Fort of Delhi twice and the Taj Mahal of Agra thrice.
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At that time there was no such big leader in India, whose name Natwarlal Thug had not to scam a fake receipt. People like Tata, Birla and Dhirubhai Ambani are also included in the list of his victims. Natwarlal Thug met all those famous industrialists as social workers and used to talk to them in such a way that they could not stop themselves from giving huge donations.
In eight different states of India, Natwarlal Thug was sentenced to more than 100 years in about 100 cases of scams. Although Natwarlal Thug was caught by the police only nine times in his entire life and he also escaped from jail eight times.
Natwarlal Thug was last seen in Delhi on 24 June 1996 when he was 84 years old. After that he was lodged in Kanpur jail, which had passed three and a half years, During this time he was unable to walk at all, He wrote a letter to the jail administration asking that his feet should be treated. The jail administration accepted his plea and he was sent to Delhi for treatment.
After treatment, he was sent from Delhi to Kanpur. At that time there were three policemen with him. At the station, he asked a policeman to bring a headache pill. The policeman went outside the station to get medicine for him. Then he asked another policeman that he want tea. When the second policeman went to get tea, he said to the third policeman that he want to go to the washroom.
As soon as the policeman took him towards the washroom, Natwarlal thug suddenly got lost in the crowd, The policemen searched the entire station, but he was nowhere to be found. It is said that he had planned to escape from the station in Kanpur jail three years ago and treatment of his feet was also part of that planning. After this Natwarlal Thug was killed in an accident in 1996, about which Natwarlal’s brother Ganga Prasad Srivastava told the police. Natwarlal thug was cremated in Ranchi, But the police department is not ready to accept this to date.