Natwarlal first discovered his ability to forge after a neighbour sent him to deposit his bank drafts.
18 Facts About Natwarlal
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Natwarlal tried to set up a cloth business, but failed.
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However, Natwarlal soon deemed this tactic too dangerous, and he went back to conning.
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Natwarlal is said to have duped hundreds of shop owners, jewellers, bankers, and foreigners of lakhs of rupees, using more than fifty aliases to disguise himself.
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Natwarlal often used novel ideas to cheat people, such as one instance in the 1950s where he swindled the Punjab National Bank out of 6.5 lakhs of rupees in a scam involving rail freight and bags of rice.
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Natwarlal is said to have supposedly cheated a number of industrialists including the Tatas, the Birlas, and Dhirubhai Ambani, taking from them huge sums of money.
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Natwarlal sometimes posed as social workers or needy people, though he would pose as business managers and purchasing officers.
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Natwarlal often paid his victims with fake cheques and demand drafts.
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Natwarlal was reportedly a Robin Hood-like figure in Bangra, his native village.
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Natwarlal is said to have given his earnings to the less-fortunate.
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In one reported instance, Natwarlal went to Bangra to host a large feast for everyone in the village using his spoils.
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In Bihar alone, Natwarlal faced charges of 14 cases of forgery and was sentenced to 113 years in prison.
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Natwarlal was arrested nine or ten times, but most of these times, he was able to break out and escape.
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Natwarlal's escapes were often very cunning: for example, in 1957, Natwarlal escaped the Kanpur jail by donning a smuggled police uniform, bribing his cell guards with a suitcase full of money, then walking out the front gate, passing guards who saluted him.
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The last time Natwarlal was arrested was in 1996 at the age of 84.
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In 2009, Natwarlal's lawyer requested that more than 100 charges pending against him be dropped, claiming that he died on 25 July 2009.
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Natwarlal is considered to be the greatest con man in Indian history.
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Natwarlal's exploits have been compared to those of Frank Abagnale and Victor Lustig.