# Psssst…Wanna Buy the Taj Mahal?: Natwarlal

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 13 Jun 2024, 56 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/93fabfd9-e32b-46c0-85e2-b18d0167e430/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

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! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of Iheartradios Elizabeth Dutton.
[0:05] Speaker 2: Hey, Aaron, do you have a home security system?
[0:07] Speaker 3: I do?
[0:07] Speaker 2: Yeah, listen. Do you know what's ridiculous?
[0:09] Speaker 3: Yes? I do. I know. All your answers excellent. Okay.
[0:13] Speaker 3: Do you know the film director Guierromo del.
[0:16] Speaker 2: Toro, Not personally, but I know of you know of him?
[0:18] Speaker 3: Right? Do you know that he is an avid critiquer
[0:24] Speaker 3: of alien spacecraft? Yeah, he's an He's a hardcore critic apparently.
[0:30] Speaker 2: Interested in alien spacecraft.
[0:32] Speaker 3: Yes, like a legit alien spacecraft. Because you have to
[0:34] Speaker 3: understand he's seen one.
[0:36] Speaker 2: He has seen one.
[0:38] Speaker 3: Okay, here's I'll just read you.
[0:39] Speaker 2: Got to break this down.
[0:40] Speaker 3: I'll read you the story as he tells it, because
[0:42] Speaker 3: it's much better than my version. I was with a friend.
[0:44] Speaker 3: We bought a six pack, so he was drunk. Okay,
[0:47] Speaker 3: not drunk, he was drinking buzz.
[0:49] Speaker 2: You know what the zaren buzz driving is drunk driving.
[0:51] Speaker 3: But he says, and I quote, we didn't consume it.
[0:54] Speaker 3: So I don't know why he brings it up in
[0:55] Speaker 3: the story for Ambiance. I thought you were a storyteller. Anyway,
[0:59] Speaker 3: the story there was a place called Cerro del Quatro
[1:02] Speaker 3: mountain of the four on the periphery of Guadalajara. We said,
[1:06] Speaker 3: let's go to the highway. We sit down to watch
[1:08] Speaker 3: the stars and have the beer and talk. We were
[1:10] Speaker 3: the only guys by the freeway. I guess in Guadalahara
[1:13] Speaker 3: people hang out by the freeway.
[1:14] Speaker 2: I didn't know we were the.
[1:15] Speaker 3: Only guys by the freeway. I have a six all
[1:18] Speaker 3: the details of this story, Sarah, that you choose to
[1:20] Speaker 3: leave in leave out anyway. And we saw a light
[1:23] Speaker 3: on the horizon going super fast, not linear, and I
[1:25] Speaker 3: said hawk and flash, and we started honking like apparently
[1:29] Speaker 3: they the head lights started honking like this UFO is
[1:33] Speaker 3: now honking right. So at this point, he says, the
[1:36] Speaker 3: UFO went from one thousand meters away too much closer
[1:39] Speaker 3: in like less than a second. And it was so crappy.
[1:42] Speaker 3: It was a flying saucer, so cliched with lights blinking.
[1:47] Speaker 3: It's so sad. I wish I could reveal that they're
[1:50] Speaker 3: not what you think they are, that they are what
[1:52] Speaker 3: you think they are, and that the fear we felt
[1:55] Speaker 3: was so primal. But I've never been that scared in
[1:58] Speaker 3: my life. We jumped in the card fast. It was
[2:01] Speaker 3: following us. Then I looked back and it was gone.
[2:04] Speaker 3: But he's not done, Elizabeth, because he also wanted to
[2:06] Speaker 3: add I didn't want to see a UFO. It was
[2:09] Speaker 3: horribly designed.
[2:11] Speaker 2: He scared him though. It got the job done totally.
[2:13] Speaker 3: I just love that he sees this UFO and like
[2:15] Speaker 3: half the time he's like irritated. Then he's critiquing it.
[2:18] Speaker 3: He's telling it to like blow off like a hunk
[2:21] Speaker 3: if you're horny. I mean, like he's just hilarious. Just
[2:24] Speaker 3: sitting on the side of the freeway, not drinking beer. Yeah,
[2:27] Speaker 3: just sitting there with it anywhere. That's garra Mo del toro. Ridiculous.
[2:30] Speaker 2: Ridiculous is what that is? Do you wonder what else
[2:32] Speaker 2: is ridiculous?
[2:33] Speaker 3: God? I came here for it. I drove across town for.
[2:35] Speaker 2: It, selling the taj Mahal three times. Oh yes, this
[3:00] Speaker 2: is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
[3:04] Speaker 2: He and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
[3:08] Speaker 2: and one hundred percent ridiculous.
[3:11] Speaker 3: Oh you damn right, I know.
[3:12] Speaker 2: I am con artists.
[3:14] Speaker 3: No, you're talking about language.
[3:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, we've been very focused on North American Australian and
[3:19] Speaker 2: European criminals, like pretty much English speaking areas of the
[3:22] Speaker 2: world for the most part, because.
[3:23] Speaker 3: We're English speakers and the newspapers are easiest for us
[3:26] Speaker 3: to research, exactly. I try to do the translating on
[3:28] Speaker 3: the French ones, but some of them when you go
[3:31] Speaker 3: past that, I don't trust the translations because I can
[3:33] Speaker 3: read a little French, right, But like if we're getting
[3:35] Speaker 3: into like the new I'm like, I don't know if
[3:37] Speaker 3: this is accurate.
[3:38] Speaker 2: I try to do like some Scandinavian ones, and I
[3:41] Speaker 2: just first of all, I'm just gonna kill everyone's names,
[3:43] Speaker 2: and I mean I do that anyway, so it's even worse.
[3:46] Speaker 2: And then second like that, yeah, the translations are so clumsy.
[3:49] Speaker 3: It's not a romance language. I can't really trust the
[3:52] Speaker 3: translation that I'll be able to go that makes sense exactly.
[3:54] Speaker 2: And so we've we've kind of ventured out. But look,
[3:57] Speaker 2: what about the rest of the world.
[3:59] Speaker 3: What about the rest of the go global?
[4:01] Speaker 2: Baby? So no culture is crime free, of course, you know,
[4:04] Speaker 2: if there's humans, there's crime, crime, and so but I
[4:08] Speaker 2: want to take you to the subcontinent to India. Yes, Ininja,
[4:12] Speaker 2: as they said, and it's there that we're going to
[4:15] Speaker 2: meet a legendary swindler and con man. Legend.
[4:19] Speaker 3: This guy's legend you mentioned Mahal. You already got my age.
[4:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a gentleman who pulled off frauds, capers, multiple
[4:26] Speaker 2: prison escapes. Yeah, he's your kind of guy. I'm talking
[4:31] Speaker 2: about Nilal. He's a legend. As I said, Now, he was.
[4:36] Speaker 2: He was born Mitilesh Kumar Strivistava and that was in
[4:42] Speaker 2: nineteen thirteen. Okay, so that's where we are. So Mitilesh,
[4:47] Speaker 2: this auspicious occasion of his birth took place in a
[4:50] Speaker 2: very rural village called Ravia Bangra in the state of
[4:54] Speaker 2: Bihar in India. And so he was the oldest of
[4:57] Speaker 2: two sons of a wealthy landowner and the I also
[5:00] Speaker 2: owned a railroad station from well hooked up. Yeah, but
[5:05] Speaker 2: he was just like a normal kid. He liked playing soccer,
[5:08] Speaker 2: he loved chess.
[5:09] Speaker 3: So the money didn't change him, is what you're telling me.
[5:11] Speaker 2: Not big on cracking of the books, that was the thing.
[5:15] Speaker 2: So but you know, he's like a smart kid, he's
[5:17] Speaker 2: just not like motivated.
[5:19] Speaker 3: That's true. A lot of smart kids, right, But see.
[5:21] Speaker 2: Like a rich landowner and railroad station owner generally wants
[5:25] Speaker 2: an overachiever.
[5:26] Speaker 3: Oh sure, yeah, he wants that's.
[5:30] Speaker 2: Slackers in this house. And so one day Mitteles tangled
[5:34] Speaker 2: with a teacher. They had words.
[5:37] Speaker 3: Words are fistical.
[5:38] Speaker 2: Well maybe there's a bit of shoving.
[5:39] Speaker 3: Who's to say they fought, yes and altercation?
[5:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. They had a set to And this was
[5:46] Speaker 2: back in the day when students respected their teachers. Oh
[5:49] Speaker 2: and parents backed up the teachers. Remember that. Yes, it's
[5:52] Speaker 2: not like today, where students and their parents have very
[5:55] Speaker 2: little regard for the underpaid, over extended, highly trained, and
[5:58] Speaker 2: educated individuals who basically sacrifice themselves for the betterment of students.
[6:03] Speaker 2: The educator says, what you know that I'm talking about
[6:06] Speaker 2: K through twelve, which I don't have. I do not
[6:09] Speaker 2: have the metal to do that. I never have, never will.
[6:12] Speaker 2: Like I can't I don't have the legal protection right well,
[6:16] Speaker 2: I mean right now, those teachers, they're treated like garbage
[6:19] Speaker 2: by parents administrators. I have so many friends dealing with
[6:22] Speaker 2: this right now. It's nuts. But anyway, Mike alesh so
[6:26] Speaker 2: he gotten a dust up with his teacher, and his
[6:28] Speaker 2: dad was pissed, like, you don't do that? He got
[6:31] Speaker 2: so mad that he beat Mittilesh.
[6:33] Speaker 3: Dang with a cane or something like with.
[6:36] Speaker 2: Implements or his fists or something. And that's part of
[6:41] Speaker 2: the back in the day that I can't get behind. Yes,
[6:44] Speaker 2: the corporal punishment, telling you kids these days anyway.
[6:47] Speaker 3: Do you like more of just a shame game?
[6:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, kids with their TikTok mental health diagnosis and their
[6:53] Speaker 2: stupid slaying and anyway, Middlesh, Hello, hello, Mittilesh. So one
[6:59] Speaker 2: day sent him to the bank to deposit some checks
[7:02] Speaker 2: for him. So he's just like an errand boy in
[7:04] Speaker 2: the neighborhood.
[7:04] Speaker 3: So the neighbor sends Mittelesh to the back.
[7:07] Speaker 2: He's like, you there, mitt Alesh, go deposit these checks.
[7:09] Speaker 2: You're rich.
[7:10] Speaker 3: You know what a check is?
[7:11] Speaker 2: Like, how lazy do you have to be? Use the app, buddy?
[7:15] Speaker 2: So he deposit checks these days. So mitth Alesh he
[7:18] Speaker 2: looked at the checks. He looks at the dude's signature,
[7:21] Speaker 2: and he's like, this is so easy to forge.
[7:23] Speaker 3: He's like, I don't like schoolwork, but I can do this.
[7:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not a complicated signature. And I like chess,
[7:28] Speaker 2: you know, I like to you know, maneuver around game.
[7:31] Speaker 3: Systems.
[7:31] Speaker 2: Right, so he like practices the neighbor's signature. He has
[7:35] Speaker 2: that skill in his pocket. He starts withdrawing money from
[7:37] Speaker 2: the account for his own use, like, oh, this guy
[7:39] Speaker 2: wrote me a check, and pretty soon he'd stolen more
[7:42] Speaker 2: than a thousand rupees.
[7:43] Speaker 3: Oh is that a lot?
[7:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess. And eventually then the neighbor finds out
[7:48] Speaker 2: and gets angry. Mittlelesh is fifteen at the time. Nice
[7:52] Speaker 2: and between getting busted for a check fraud and a
[7:56] Speaker 2: dad that loved to dole out whoopins yes, he's like,
[7:58] Speaker 2: you know what, I got to skip town.
[8:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, he's going to military school next anyway.
[8:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And so he goes off to Calcutta, Kolkatta.
[8:07] Speaker 2: It was Calcutta. He didn't know a soul there. He
[8:10] Speaker 2: gets there, he enrolls in the university, starts studying for
[8:14] Speaker 2: his bases.
[8:14] Speaker 3: Kid himself in Colcatta. Yeah wow right, and he rolled.
[8:20] Speaker 2: And he starts studying to get a bachelor's of Commerce.
[8:23] Speaker 3: Damn right.
[8:24] Speaker 2: He had side hustles, so he got a brief gig
[8:27] Speaker 2: as a stockbroker, like explain that. And then he tried
[8:31] Speaker 2: to set up a cloth business and that didn't really
[8:33] Speaker 2: pan out.
[8:34] Speaker 3: But while he was imagine there's a lot of competition
[8:36] Speaker 3: in India for cloth, think, so I kind of that.
[8:39] Speaker 2: Well, he gets a taste for it and you see
[8:41] Speaker 2: how he uses it in the future. So while he's
[8:44] Speaker 2: he's studying, he meets this wealthy local businessman, Kashav Rohm
[8:49] Speaker 2: and he tells him like, Hey, Rom, guess what, I'm
[8:52] Speaker 2: a private tutor. He's like, that's good for you, and
[8:55] Speaker 2: he Mitteles pulls out He's like, quote authentic looking testimonials
[9:01] Speaker 2: from supposedly satisfied parents as proof of his badass tutoring skills.
[9:06] Speaker 2: He's like, come on up in this. And so Rom,
[9:10] Speaker 2: he looks at the paperwork. He's totally convinced you're hired.
[9:13] Speaker 2: You'd be perfect for this.
[9:14] Speaker 3: My dumb kids need you.
[9:15] Speaker 2: Well, Rob, he has these two kids and he wants
[9:17] Speaker 2: some learned up good and so, after a couple of
[9:20] Speaker 2: months on the job, meet Alesh. He asked if he
[9:22] Speaker 2: could borrow some money to buy more books and Rom
[9:25] Speaker 2: was like, nah, here's what you have. Mick alash lost
[9:30] Speaker 2: it really Oh yeah, you I thought you were in
[9:34] Speaker 2: it to win it with your kids and their academic careers.
[9:37] Speaker 2: And then he starts to question, Yeah, he questions Rom's
[9:41] Speaker 2: commitment to sparkle motion. So he quits. And not just that,
[9:45] Speaker 2: he also vowed to get revenge. I'm not kidding you.
[9:49] Speaker 3: Over some books.
[9:50] Speaker 2: Uh huh. This is your people, they are, they told her,
[9:53] Speaker 2: So take a step back. It's amazing this guy loses
[9:56] Speaker 2: his slippers. We're not getting book money. He's like, I'm
[9:59] Speaker 2: gonna destroy you if it's the last thing I do.
[10:03] Speaker 2: We need arithmetic workbooks. How could you have forsaken us?
[10:07] Speaker 3: Not even his kids? Not even his kids?
[10:09] Speaker 2: So mittles, he gets to work. He somehow manages to
[10:13] Speaker 2: get a job as headmaster of the school where Rom's
[10:17] Speaker 2: kids go.
[10:17] Speaker 3: Get out, like.
[10:19] Speaker 2: Did he use his fake resume transcript recommendations? You bet
[10:23] Speaker 2: your life he did. He faked all the documents. He
[10:26] Speaker 2: rolls in there. He's like, you know, you'd be a
[10:28] Speaker 2: fool enough to hire me. And so now he's the
[10:32] Speaker 2: education final boss life and like he could make or
[10:36] Speaker 2: break the rom kids academic chances.
[10:38] Speaker 3: And he can make him buy some books.
[10:40] Speaker 2: Totally like he's the big dogs. Saron. He walks in.
[10:45] Speaker 2: So Rom found out that Mittelesh was in charge of
[10:50] Speaker 2: the school and begs him for forgiveness, like, oh my god,
[10:54] Speaker 2: I just I brushed you off.
[10:57] Speaker 3: To make time for my kids alone.
[10:59] Speaker 2: And then he those to him, He's like, you know what,
[11:01] Speaker 2: I will hire you away from the school. I'm going
[11:03] Speaker 2: to pay you more than you're making now if you
[11:05] Speaker 2: come be a tutor again, do.
[11:07] Speaker 3: The job that I got mad at you about, and
[11:10] Speaker 3: I'll pay you more.
[11:10] Speaker 2: And I'll pay you more.
[11:12] Speaker 3: So mith ales is, how did this guy get rich?
[11:14] Speaker 2: I don't know, well, not for long. Mid Alege agrees
[11:17] Speaker 2: quits the school job, which also he probably has no
[11:19] Speaker 2: idea what he's doing.
[11:20] Speaker 3: He can barely keep it because I mean, yeah, howd
[11:21] Speaker 3: you get in?
[11:22] Speaker 2: But that was just the beginning of his revenge plot
[11:24] Speaker 2: the first act. So this is around nineteen thirty seven,
[11:28] Speaker 2: and there was a cloth shortage in the area.
[11:31] Speaker 3: He's like, this is like he's in his mid twenties.
[11:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, he was born in nineteen thirteen and so twenty four. Yeah,
[11:36] Speaker 2: we're at thirty seven.
[11:37] Speaker 3: This is great. Yeah, so head master in his early twenties.
[11:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, there's this cloth shortage in the area.
[11:43] Speaker 3: Now he's a tutor a yeah, back to tutoring.
[11:45] Speaker 2: Things were about to get super bad in the area.
[11:47] Speaker 2: Because like just six years later was the Bengal Famine
[11:50] Speaker 2: of nineteen forty three. Yeah, and so somewhere between one
[11:54] Speaker 2: and three million people died of starvation, malaria, general crappy conditions.
[11:59] Speaker 2: The agricultural economy in the area was really stagnant, but
[12:03] Speaker 2: the population's exploding. And so this is in the run
[12:06] Speaker 2: up to this. And then also you throw in in
[12:08] Speaker 2: forty three you have the you know, World War two
[12:11] Speaker 2: accompanying inflation. They had messed up rice imports because of
[12:15] Speaker 2: the Japanese occupation of Burma as it was called. Then
[12:19] Speaker 2: a couple of natural disasters thrown in there, this expanding
[12:22] Speaker 2: social stratification, whatever horrific perfect storm is exactly So that's
[12:26] Speaker 2: on the horizon for Calcutta. When in nineteen thirty seven
[12:29] Speaker 2: there was the cloth shortage. So mith Alesh told Ram like, Buddy,
[12:34] Speaker 2: I have a cousin from Bombay now Mumbai who just
[12:38] Speaker 2: got into town and he wants to sell two hundred
[12:41] Speaker 2: bales of cloth on the black market. Like, hello, everybody,
[12:44] Speaker 2: I'm new in town. But you know, I was just
[12:48] Speaker 2: thinking like would you be kind of cool?
[12:50] Speaker 3: Would you be might need that?
[12:52] Speaker 2: Yeah? You want in he says Mittelesh says he will
[12:55] Speaker 2: sell the cloth directly to Ram for around four hundred
[12:58] Speaker 2: and fifty thousand rupees.
[13:01] Speaker 3: That's rupees rupees. Wow, that seems like a lot. I
[13:05] Speaker 3: don't know.
[13:05] Speaker 2: I didn't do the conversion because I didn't want. I
[13:08] Speaker 2: couldn't do the conversion from then to now. It's just
[13:11] Speaker 2: too much for my small brain.
[13:13] Speaker 3: I feel. So I'm gonna say it's a lot based
[13:15] Speaker 3: on your previous it sounds like amount of rupees that
[13:17] Speaker 3: you said.
[13:17] Speaker 2: It sounds a lot. Rom stoked.
[13:20] Speaker 3: He's like, four fifty k I'll take it.
[13:22] Speaker 2: I'm in. And then mit Alesh remembered, oh, you know what,
[13:25] Speaker 2: my cousin's already back in Bombay. Crap, what are we
[13:28] Speaker 2: going to do? No worries Mith Alesh. He offers to
[13:32] Speaker 2: go to Bombay personally guarantee that his cousin's two hundred
[13:35] Speaker 2: bales were delivered right to Rom. So he's like, he's
[13:39] Speaker 2: not here in town, but I'll be the middleman. Rom's like, yeah, sure,
[13:41] Speaker 2: but you know what, I'm going to send my agent
[13:43] Speaker 2: with you to finalize the deal, to be the one
[13:46] Speaker 2: to carry the money.
[13:47] Speaker 3: Yeah exactly.
[13:48] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[13:48] Speaker 3: So had that going on.
[13:49] Speaker 2: The two guys they go to Bombay, mitt Lesh and
[13:52] Speaker 2: this agent the agent, and this is according to India
[13:54] Speaker 2: Today quote on the journey, Mittalleesh had cleverly though casually
[13:58] Speaker 2: regaled the agent with stories of Bombay's tough police force
[14:02] Speaker 2: and the ruthless elements in the underworld who had no
[14:05] Speaker 2: compunctions about dispatching any outsider who dared to poach on
[14:09] Speaker 2: their preserves. So they check into the hotel, they make
[14:13] Speaker 2: plans to visit the mill where the deal's going to
[14:16] Speaker 2: go down. The agent he was like down for some
[14:19] Speaker 2: black market dealings in theory, yeah.
[14:22] Speaker 3: But.
[14:24] Speaker 2: He hears all the stories and now he's crazy nervous,
[14:26] Speaker 2: like something terrible could happen.
[14:28] Speaker 3: And then what he got his imagination cooking.
[14:30] Speaker 2: They're breaking the law, there's no protection. So the agent,
[14:32] Speaker 2: he whimps out, stays back at the hotel. He gives
[14:36] Speaker 2: myth Alesh the money to go do the deal and
[14:39] Speaker 2: it's like, I'll wait for you here and then you
[14:41] Speaker 2: come back and it'll be great. And so off goes
[14:44] Speaker 2: myth Alesh with nearly half a million rupees in his pocket.
[14:47] Speaker 2: Did he go to the warehouse.
[14:49] Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with my second answer of no, he
[14:52] Speaker 3: did not.
[14:52] Speaker 2: You're correct, there was no warehouse. But we knew that, yes,
[14:55] Speaker 2: you knew that. Instead, myth Alesh went back to his
[14:58] Speaker 2: own village and he walks into his house.
[15:01] Speaker 3: Climbed on top of one of those trains filled with
[15:03] Speaker 3: people and gone.
[15:04] Speaker 2: Gone, gonezers. He goes into his house and hands his
[15:07] Speaker 2: dad one hundred thousand.
[15:08] Speaker 3: Rupees Wow, good son, and.
[15:11] Speaker 2: Tells him, you know what, I've become a major shareholder
[15:14] Speaker 2: in a big company in Calcutta. Like he hasn't been back, yeah,
[15:18] Speaker 2: and so he ran off yeah, and then he turns
[15:21] Speaker 2: around goes back to Calcutta. So he's just like walks in,
[15:25] Speaker 2: drops one hundred k It's like, look at me now, dad,
[15:28] Speaker 2: and then off he.
[15:28] Speaker 3: Goes, Hey, did any of your other kids wet your beak?
[15:31] Speaker 2: Like that's right, that's right. So the dad looks out
[15:34] Speaker 2: the window and Kats in the cradle starts playing while
[15:36] Speaker 2: his solitary tear ran down his cheek. So, meanwhile, back
[15:40] Speaker 2: in Calcutta, meeth Alesh was home, but so is Rom,
[15:44] Speaker 2: and Rom was pissed because like, yeah, the agent finally
[15:49] Speaker 2: must have dawned on Himlingh.
[15:50] Speaker 3: Figured out what happened. Yeah, yeah, he's got no yards
[15:52] Speaker 3: of fabric.
[15:53] Speaker 2: He's got no money, right, so rom he knew he'd
[15:55] Speaker 2: been had and when he heard myth Alesh was back
[15:57] Speaker 2: in town, it was on snapped his fingers and his
[16:01] Speaker 2: henchmen appeared. I would love to have henchmen.
[16:05] Speaker 3: I know.
[16:06] Speaker 2: We have these interments.
[16:07] Speaker 3: Just picking the health care for them, it's a whole
[16:09] Speaker 3: thing because they have real needs for paperwork. They're constantly
[16:13] Speaker 3: getting injured.
[16:14] Speaker 2: We've got these, we got these interns, but they're not
[16:16] Speaker 2: very intimidating, and like some of them, their weapons skills
[16:18] Speaker 2: are goofy dogs and most of them I want, I want.
[16:23] Speaker 2: We got some though. They know how to they know
[16:25] Speaker 2: how to work Instagram, yes, so congratulations to them. But
[16:29] Speaker 2: I want intimidating muscle to do my bidding, like brave
[16:34] Speaker 2: the cluster f parking lot up the hill and pick
[16:36] Speaker 2: up my ice coffee from Pete. But no, the interns,
[16:39] Speaker 2: they don't like that parking lot. It's too hectic. I
[16:41] Speaker 2: have to do it for myself. You're getting college credits
[16:44] Speaker 2: for this. Guys. You don't even answer the emails, and
[16:47] Speaker 2: some of you lick yourself and shuttle over the place anyway, MILESH.
[16:50] Speaker 2: So the henchmen, they caught up with them. They drag
[16:53] Speaker 2: him over to Rom's place. Myth Alesh said he lost
[16:55] Speaker 2: the money when he'd been chased by police.
[16:58] Speaker 3: So they go over to his place and he's sitting there.
[17:00] Speaker 3: They and they come back to man.
[17:04] Speaker 2: He's like, the cops showed up at the warehouse, they
[17:07] Speaker 2: came after me. I lost the money. It flew out
[17:10] Speaker 2: of my pockets and.
[17:11] Speaker 3: You know, and then I got luckily back home. Scary,
[17:13] Speaker 3: and so I'm the victim here.
[17:15] Speaker 2: Right, And Rom's like, don't care. He says, Smith Alesh,
[17:18] Speaker 2: you have four days to repay me or I'm going
[17:20] Speaker 2: to kill you. No, not a one percent on my
[17:23] Speaker 2: watch there. So myth Alesh, of course, he has this
[17:26] Speaker 2: wily plan. He went to the cops. He accused Rom
[17:30] Speaker 2: of having threatened to kill him after he had refused
[17:33] Speaker 2: to help him with black market deals. So he turns
[17:35] Speaker 2: it around like Rom's the originator of the deal. And
[17:38] Speaker 2: I said, no way, buddy, I don't do that kind
[17:39] Speaker 2: of stuff, and he said, I'm going to kill you.
[17:41] Speaker 2: So that's what he tells the cops.
[17:43] Speaker 3: And then he successfully was able to get the half
[17:45] Speaker 3: million rupees out of him or whatever.
[17:47] Speaker 2: Because well, he doesn't mention the half million. He just
[17:51] Speaker 2: says he threatened to kill me. He's like ps, Rom
[17:54] Speaker 2: has a lot of shady business dealings because like they met,
[17:57] Speaker 2: may or may not have been fiction. Myth Alesh may,
[18:02] Speaker 2: I'm inclined to believe that Rom is already a little
[18:04] Speaker 2: dirty if he hears that a black market cloth deal.
[18:08] Speaker 3: Representative. Yeah, change, he said a punk.
[18:11] Speaker 2: So Rom and his henchmen they get arrested, but the
[18:14] Speaker 2: police spoke to Rom. Myth Aleshe gets arrested too, and
[18:17] Speaker 2: he spent some time in jail.
[18:19] Speaker 3: I forgo. Rom has the money degree, and pomps.
[18:21] Speaker 2: I think so. Yeah. So that same year, myth Alesh
[18:23] Speaker 2: gets arrested again for stealing nine tons of iron.
[18:29] Speaker 3: Well, he saw the you first steal a train to
[18:32] Speaker 3: put the iron on.
[18:33] Speaker 2: He saw these iron joints on the street, like a
[18:36] Speaker 2: big stack for a project.
[18:38] Speaker 3: Right, I assume you don't mean you don't mean marijuana cigarettes.
[18:40] Speaker 2: A bunch of iron marijuana.
[18:42] Speaker 3: Cigarettes, a little decorative marijuana cigarettes.
[18:44] Speaker 2: Marijua, nine tons of paperweight. He saw iron joints on
[18:50] Speaker 2: the street that were like joined peoples and irons, and
[18:53] Speaker 2: they're for like this building thing, And so he forged
[18:57] Speaker 2: documents saying that they belonged to him, and then he
[18:59] Speaker 2: sold them to an a metal dealer if you want.
[19:01] Speaker 3: These another town.
[19:03] Speaker 2: Yeah, he gets convicted and sentenced to six months in jail.
[19:06] Speaker 2: He'd barely been out when he gets arrested again and
[19:08] Speaker 2: he goes in for another eight months for what who.
[19:11] Speaker 3: Knows, financial crimes. She's always like less than a year exactly.
[19:14] Speaker 2: So we went around for trying to con sex workers
[19:16] Speaker 2: for a bit, but then he wound up using them
[19:18] Speaker 2: as accomplices in his cons instead of victims, because they
[19:21] Speaker 2: were like, we're gonna we're gonna learn you really quick.
[19:23] Speaker 3: This doesn't happen they bring us in or we're gonna
[19:25] Speaker 3: turn Yeah, and so.
[19:26] Speaker 2: He he has these more cons. He's doing cons like
[19:29] Speaker 2: he wouldn't believe. Let's take a break. I'm going to
[19:31] Speaker 2: fill you in on this next chapter of his life
[19:33] Speaker 2: of crime.
[19:34] Speaker 3: I'm taking this cat.
[19:55] Speaker 2: So meth alesh. Yeah, he will later be known as Natoirlal.
[20:00] Speaker 3: But I was wondering we'll get there.
[20:04] Speaker 2: So here's how India Today characterized his game quote. Natwarlal's
[20:09] Speaker 2: modus operandi was relatively simple. His initial operations involved the
[20:14] Speaker 2: swindling of goods from jewelry shops and large departmental stores
[20:17] Speaker 2: in the cities he visited. He would first open a
[20:20] Speaker 2: bank account in a large bank. He would then win
[20:23] Speaker 2: the confidence of the shopkeepers by paying for his purchases
[20:26] Speaker 2: by checks, which were promptly cashed. Once he'd earned their trust,
[20:30] Speaker 2: Natowilal would withdraw his bank account and on the same
[20:33] Speaker 2: day by large amounts of jewelry and expensive items from
[20:36] Speaker 2: the stores, which he could sell later. He was careful, though,
[20:39] Speaker 2: to limit his purchases to a few thousand rupees so
[20:42] Speaker 2: as to combat any suspicion that might arise. He would
[20:45] Speaker 2: then disappear from the city. Another of his favorite cons
[20:49] Speaker 2: was to open multiple bank accounts in a particular city
[20:52] Speaker 2: in the name of a fictitious company. He would then
[20:55] Speaker 2: hire an office complete with expensive looking furniture and well
[20:58] Speaker 2: groomed secretaries. Would gradually befriend the bank managers where he
[21:02] Speaker 2: had accounts by whining and dining them. Once he had
[21:05] Speaker 2: established a personal relationship, he would put in requests for
[21:08] Speaker 2: large overdrafts, and when the request was complied with, he
[21:11] Speaker 2: would quietly disappear.
[21:12] Speaker 3: So he would do a big house on bank managers.
[21:15] Speaker 2: Yeah and he's laying all this money in the setup
[21:18] Speaker 2: for it, you know, like he opens a big bank
[21:20] Speaker 2: account to swindle the jewelry stores and he's paying for
[21:24] Speaker 2: the jewelry for the first set of it.
[21:26] Speaker 3: Totally, it is brilliant. I said big, I mean big store,
[21:29] Speaker 3: you know, from the sting, which is basically you create
[21:31] Speaker 3: a fake business or fake front and then you know,
[21:33] Speaker 3: but he's doing on banks and it's so brilliant because
[21:35] Speaker 3: there's some of the most suspicious people you have going.
[21:38] Speaker 2: And whining and dining and he's winning them over.
[21:41] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's at therego. I love it.
[21:44] Speaker 2: Brilliant. One of his favorite cons to pull involved posing
[21:48] Speaker 2: as a government official. He would then try and sell
[21:51] Speaker 2: buildings to foreigners.
[21:54] Speaker 3: So you hear a British accent.
[21:57] Speaker 2: Oh he allegedly sold the taj Mahal three times.
[22:00] Speaker 3: Oh my god, do we know, like how or to who?
[22:03] Speaker 2: I wish I wish I could find out to whom
[22:06] Speaker 2: he was selling these properties. I would love to know
[22:09] Speaker 2: who tried to buy the taj Mahal. Marriotte Bonvoy. Maybe
[22:13] Speaker 2: he sold the Red Fort two times, and the President
[22:17] Speaker 2: of India's official residence as well as the Parliament, House
[22:20] Speaker 2: of India along with its five hundred plus.
[22:22] Speaker 3: Members Americans or the buyers. I'm just I'm just putting
[22:26] Speaker 3: it out there.
[22:27] Speaker 2: Probably because I think the British, you know, they knew
[22:30] Speaker 2: that you couldn't buy it.
[22:31] Speaker 3: I don't know, well, they had already kind of like
[22:33] Speaker 3: they already bought it, subjugated the whole area, so they're like, look.
[22:38] Speaker 2: His other big scams involved rail freight. Remember his dad
[22:41] Speaker 2: worked on the railroad, but not worked.
[22:43] Speaker 3: Worked.
[22:44] Speaker 2: He knew how everything worked though work, work worked. I
[22:47] Speaker 2: just keep saying that word. And he knew where there
[22:50] Speaker 2: were gaps in the system. So he'd go to stations
[22:54] Speaker 2: and he would check out the goods that were waiting
[22:56] Speaker 2: to be moved. Then he would create these like false
[22:59] Speaker 2: release orders and false checks and then take them. So
[23:02] Speaker 2: he sees what's out there waiting to get picked up,
[23:04] Speaker 2: quickly writes up the documents like, oh, those are mine,
[23:06] Speaker 2: I'll take those now, thank you so much.
[23:08] Speaker 3: So the ink is still wet.
[23:09] Speaker 2: Yes, what did he steal doing this?
[23:11] Speaker 3: What did he steal? Elizabeth?
[23:12] Speaker 2: A harmonium?
[23:13] Speaker 3: Wait, like one of those glass like like Benjamin Franklin
[23:16] Speaker 3: Organs where you turn the glass.
[23:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was worth one hundred and thirty five rupees.
[23:21] Speaker 3: That's cool. Ben's engine like a Mercedes Ben.
[23:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, he just sees an engine.
[23:25] Speaker 3: He's like, we'll take it.
[23:26] Speaker 2: I got a box of screws worth a thousand rupees
[23:28] Speaker 2: that was worth more than the harmonium box of screws.
[23:31] Speaker 3: You can do a lot more of that.
[23:32] Speaker 2: But it's small potatoes, so it's not like he sees like, oh,
[23:36] Speaker 2: this gigantic shipment. It's just little stuff here and there
[23:38] Speaker 2: that's easy enough for the pocket.
[23:40] Speaker 3: Yeah, and it holds value all the stuff, he says,
[23:42] Speaker 3: I mean yeah.
[23:43] Speaker 2: Well, then he started getting into bigger stuff. This is
[23:45] Speaker 2: again according to India Today quote. He would book railway
[23:48] Speaker 2: wagons for allegedly transporting sugar and other commodities. He would
[23:53] Speaker 2: pay the minimum transportation costs and then sell the consignment
[23:56] Speaker 2: to buyers at the destination by showing them forged receipts
[23:59] Speaker 2: for the supposed goods. When the consignment finally arrived, they
[24:02] Speaker 2: were nothing but bags of sand or bricks, no sugar
[24:06] Speaker 2: to be found. Another quote. One of his best known
[24:08] Speaker 2: stings was in the fifties, he gained the confidence of
[24:11] Speaker 2: a manager in the Punjab National Bank by posing as
[24:14] Speaker 2: a big businessman. He would book one bag of pulses
[24:17] Speaker 2: or rice to be sent by freight to Calcutta by
[24:19] Speaker 2: the railways. On the railway receipt he changed one bag
[24:23] Speaker 2: to one hundred or more and obtained advances from the
[24:26] Speaker 2: bank on these receipts. He rapidly built up such advances,
[24:30] Speaker 2: honoring only a few of them, and even got one
[24:32] Speaker 2: of the bank branches to advance money. When the total
[24:35] Speaker 2: reached six hundred and fifty thousand rupees, he abruptly cozy
[24:39] Speaker 2: account and vanished.
[24:40] Speaker 3: Did it work?
[24:42] Speaker 2: He got at so like as before, there's this textile
[24:45] Speaker 2: shortage going on in India. He went to the textile
[24:49] Speaker 2: commissioner in Bombay, pretending to be a purchase officer, and
[24:52] Speaker 2: he brought with him a guy fellow by the name
[24:54] Speaker 2: of natilal Oh real name, that's the guy's name.
[24:59] Speaker 3: Way to be confuse, he brings himself with himself.
[25:01] Speaker 2: He brings a man named Tolal and that's the guy's
[25:04] Speaker 2: real name.
[25:04] Speaker 3: So you think you pretend to be my name and
[25:06] Speaker 3: I'll be you know, at.
[25:07] Speaker 2: This point he's still mith Alesh.
[25:10] Speaker 4: And he and.
[25:13] Speaker 2: The guys approached manufacturers who were keen to get out
[25:17] Speaker 2: of turn allotments of cotton. So mitt Alesh and Natty
[25:23] Speaker 2: for real took advance payments from these manufacturers. They forged
[25:28] Speaker 2: railway release certificates and then told the dealers to collect
[25:32] Speaker 2: the goods from a certain train station. Okay, and then
[25:35] Speaker 2: they get to the station. Is the cotton there?
[25:37] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[25:37] Speaker 2: No, mit got busted on this one. Nilal got away. Now. However,
[25:45] Speaker 2: according to the India Times, the police thought that the
[25:47] Speaker 2: man that they caught our Mitteleh Wasntilal okay, and so
[25:52] Speaker 2: that became his name, and from that moment on he
[25:55] Speaker 2: was Natwilal or Natty Ice or Natty Gan or Natty Bumla.
[26:00] Speaker 3: In m So Meta Lush is met Lesh up to
[26:02] Speaker 3: this point. Yeah, and then he has his buddy who
[26:05] Speaker 3: goes with him, Natty. Yeah, Natty gets away and then
[26:09] Speaker 3: people decide met a Lesh is not the met Lesh
[26:13] Speaker 3: who got caught. He's the naughty who got away.
[26:15] Speaker 2: Yeah. So our guy Metelesh gets booked and they're like, oh, no, Twilal,
[26:19] Speaker 2: you don't have any priors, we'll book you in. He's like,
[26:21] Speaker 2: you're right, I don't have any priors.
[26:24] Speaker 3: So he.
[26:27] Speaker 2: Oh wow, wiping out all of his stuff. So they
[26:30] Speaker 2: think that Mitlesh is on the run out there. Yes,
[26:33] Speaker 2: and he becomes he becomeslal So in the fifties and sixties,
[26:37] Speaker 2: those were good conning years for him.
[26:39] Speaker 3: I bet and he he's got a blank slate, latebla
[26:43] Speaker 3: rasa man.
[26:44] Speaker 2: He struck all across the country and it happens again
[26:46] Speaker 2: for him too. It's said that in nineteen sixty three
[26:49] Speaker 2: he managed the theft of goods worth ten million rupees.
[26:53] Speaker 3: Nineteen sixty three, sixties in his early fifties. Yeah, he's
[26:56] Speaker 3: just like a vet. Yeah.
[27:00] Speaker 2: He was wanted in seven different states under thirty different
[27:04] Speaker 2: names because he realized, oh wait, I used the other.
[27:06] Speaker 3: Name all thing. He's like a Japanese calligraphy.
[27:09] Speaker 2: People still they're like, oh, it's that guy in a
[27:10] Speaker 2: twirlol that we busted for the cotton thing.
[27:12] Speaker 3: They're still tying it back that name.
[27:15] Speaker 2: Maybe. One place he pulled a lot of his shipping
[27:18] Speaker 2: switcheru cons was Lucknow, and it seems like a really
[27:22] Speaker 2: lovely place. By the way, what was unlucky for the
[27:25] Speaker 2: city of Lucknow was very lucky for Natwirlal. There was
[27:29] Speaker 2: a huge flood there in nineteen sixty one of the
[27:32] Speaker 2: worst on record for a city that seems to flood
[27:35] Speaker 2: quite a bit. So the Gumpti River overflowed its banks
[27:38] Speaker 2: and the city was submerged under meters of water. Why
[27:42] Speaker 2: was that lucky for Natty?
[27:44] Speaker 3: He floats.
[27:45] Speaker 2: Well, all of his case files in that city were
[27:47] Speaker 2: washed away and destroyed, yet another clean slate, so there's
[27:52] Speaker 2: no records. But it wasn't just lucknow that didn't have records.
[27:55] Speaker 2: Bahar State where he's from, has no files of his
[27:58] Speaker 2: crime past the age of forty four.
[28:00] Speaker 3: Really, yeah, they just gave up.
[28:02] Speaker 2: I don't know, paid stole them, who knows. It doesn't
[28:05] Speaker 2: mean he wasn't criming though. But he gets arrested and
[28:08] Speaker 2: sent to jail many many times, and speaking to jail
[28:12] Speaker 2: he had a gift for escaping.
[28:14] Speaker 3: I was just about to ask.
[28:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, he said that no prison in India could actually
[28:18] Speaker 2: hold him.
[28:19] Speaker 3: I bet not.
[28:20] Speaker 4: No.
[28:20] Speaker 2: And after all, like, as long as there's a dishonest cop,
[28:23] Speaker 2: you can always figure out a way to get up.
[28:24] Speaker 3: This is true. So for example, and where there is poverty,
[28:27] Speaker 3: there's going to be dishonest cops.
[28:29] Speaker 2: Yes, there. It is early fifties. He gets arrested on
[28:32] Speaker 2: three charges of cheating. I don't know what kind of
[28:35] Speaker 2: cheating is cheating. On his way back to jail from court,
[28:39] Speaker 2: he convinced the cops escorting him to let him visit
[28:42] Speaker 2: his wife, who he said was at a nearby house. Okay, like,
[28:44] Speaker 2: you're about to lock me up, please, I need to
[28:47] Speaker 2: see her.
[28:47] Speaker 3: The cops agree, here's the love of my life. Give
[28:49] Speaker 3: me only five minutes with her. Yeah.
[28:51] Speaker 2: So the cops are like, okay, and we'll be respectful.
[28:54] Speaker 2: We'll stay outside the front door of the house to
[28:55] Speaker 2: guard it while you go have your last intimate moments
[28:58] Speaker 2: with your wife.
[28:58] Speaker 3: Now do you think this is like a conjuct?
[29:01] Speaker 2: I'm wondering if they stood outside, if maybe that's what
[29:04] Speaker 2: they thought Inside he climbed out of a skylight and escape. Zoinks,
[29:10] Speaker 2: there's another good escape story, Zaren.
[29:13] Speaker 3: Oh wow, you stuck it up on me.
[29:15] Speaker 2: I want you to pick.
[29:16] Speaker 3: How are you always able to do that?
[29:17] Speaker 2: I know every time. It's February nineteen fifty seven. Lucknow,
[29:23] Speaker 2: capital city of Uttar Pradesh. It is ten years after
[29:27] Speaker 2: India was liberated from British rule. There's a general election
[29:30] Speaker 2: coming up. Lucknow is a bustling city of almost half
[29:34] Speaker 2: a million souls, A blend of Hindu and Muslim cultures.
[29:37] Speaker 2: The vibe of lucknow is one of beauty and art
[29:41] Speaker 2: and literature, graceful living. You are on your way to work.
[29:45] Speaker 2: As you pass through the marketplace, you hear a transistor
[29:47] Speaker 2: radio playing what sounds like an old raga. The tune
[29:50] Speaker 2: sounds like when your mother used to hume one that
[29:52] Speaker 2: accompanied a gazol, a poem about love and loss. I
[29:56] Speaker 2: love gazal's, by the way, it's usually couplets and and
[30:00] Speaker 2: the poet hides their name phonetically in the final cup.
[30:02] Speaker 2: But anyway. You buy a kebab from a vendor and
[30:05] Speaker 2: continue on to work, a bus passing you on the
[30:07] Speaker 2: busy street. When you arrive at work, it's quiet, just
[30:10] Speaker 2: the hum of a fan and the occasional opening and
[30:12] Speaker 2: closing of heavy doors. You work at the local jail.
[30:16] Speaker 2: It's an ugly place and a beautiful city, and an
[30:18] Speaker 2: ugly job that someone must do, and that someone is you.
[30:22] Speaker 2: It's been entertaining at work lately, though, after all, you
[30:25] Speaker 2: have the infamous Natwilol in your confines. You clock in
[30:29] Speaker 2: and then begin your rounds. As you walk down the
[30:32] Speaker 2: hall of the cell block, prisoners mumble and flip through
[30:34] Speaker 2: pages of books in their cells. One starts to clank
[30:37] Speaker 2: a cup against the bars, but you shoot him a
[30:39] Speaker 2: dirty look and he immediately stops. You smile and thanks.
[30:42] Speaker 2: As you pass in a twilaal's cell, you do a
[30:45] Speaker 2: double take. He's in there, but he's dressed in a
[30:47] Speaker 2: uniform one for a deputy superintendent of police. He motions
[30:52] Speaker 2: for you to come closer. You approach the bars and
[30:55] Speaker 2: ask him how he got the uniform. He tells you
[30:57] Speaker 2: not to worry about it. He then passes you a
[30:59] Speaker 2: briefcase through the bars. You open it and it's crammed
[31:03] Speaker 2: full of rupees. Your eyes get wide. Take it, he says,
[31:07] Speaker 2: and then open this door and let me out of here.
[31:09] Speaker 2: This is ridiculous. But then he leans in and whispers
[31:12] Speaker 2: to you in the long road of love, why do
[31:15] Speaker 2: you wail? Just watch and wait how things unveil. It's
[31:19] Speaker 2: a line from a gazal by Lucknow's oone mire taki mir.
[31:23] Speaker 2: It's the ghazal that swam in your head as you
[31:26] Speaker 2: made your way to work. You have no choice. You
[31:27] Speaker 2: must let him out. You take the briefcase from him
[31:30] Speaker 2: and unlock the cell door as it creaks open. The
[31:33] Speaker 2: Toilal nods to you and breezes by, heading for the
[31:36] Speaker 2: front door of the prison. So brazen, he has to
[31:39] Speaker 2: walk by two other guards in order to get out
[31:41] Speaker 2: of the building. He puffs up his chest and struts
[31:44] Speaker 2: by them. They salute him and go on with their days.
[31:47] Speaker 2: You go to the window and you watch as he
[31:49] Speaker 2: heads to a waiting car. He gets in and it
[31:51] Speaker 2: begins to roll away from the curb, but then it
[31:53] Speaker 2: sputters and backfires and grinds to a halt. The Toilal
[31:57] Speaker 2: jumps out and looks back and forth on the street
[32:00] Speaker 2: panic though. He sees a passing hearse and he raises
[32:03] Speaker 2: his hand at it. The hearse stops, the Toilal sticks
[32:06] Speaker 2: his head through the passenger side window. He and the
[32:08] Speaker 2: undertaker have a quick conversation. Then the Toilal jumps into
[32:12] Speaker 2: the hearse and it tears away down the road. You
[32:14] Speaker 2: head back to your desk and surreptitiously open the briefcase.
[32:17] Speaker 2: Away from view. There are rupees on top of the pile,
[32:20] Speaker 2: but you realize that the rest of the case is
[32:23] Speaker 2: just filled with cut up newspaper. You chuckle to yourself
[32:26] Speaker 2: as it falls to the floor. So to Twilal. He
[32:30] Speaker 2: used variations of this trick, telling a guard or official
[32:33] Speaker 2: that there would be money waiting for him if he'd
[32:35] Speaker 2: help him with an escape, when in fact there was
[32:37] Speaker 2: no money. So that's that's a common thing.
[32:41] Speaker 3: Also, I'm assuming he had to con a previous guard
[32:43] Speaker 3: to get the uniform and then.
[32:45] Speaker 2: Previous in them.
[32:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, and also get the briefcase.
[32:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, someone's got to get the uniform smuggle it into him. Yeah,
[32:52] Speaker 2: the whole thing. So he's got multiple people that he's.
[32:55] Speaker 3: Work a pyramid scheme of like little minor in prison
[32:58] Speaker 3: scams and cons.
[32:59] Speaker 2: I love it, exactly exactly. Let's take a break and
[33:02] Speaker 2: after these beautiful ads, I'm going to tell you all
[33:05] Speaker 2: about his next adventures.
[33:06] Speaker 3: Ooh, hot buttery ads. Zaren Elizabeth over here.
[33:30] Speaker 2: Yay, it's early nineteen seventy five.
[33:32] Speaker 3: Oh, I've got to pay my taxes at least.
[33:34] Speaker 2: In this story. I don't know if it's true in
[33:37] Speaker 2: the world outside the studio, but where we are right now,
[33:40] Speaker 2: early nineteen seventy.
[33:41] Speaker 3: Ah, that explains the incense totally.
[33:43] Speaker 2: Does Natwarlos had just escaped from jail yet again. He
[33:48] Speaker 2: traveled to a new city under a fake name, and
[33:51] Speaker 2: he would go around telling everyone that he was a
[33:53] Speaker 2: visiting businessman from Bombay. How do you do?
[33:56] Speaker 3: Course, that's his move, he said that before it.
[33:58] Speaker 2: He uses it all the time. And then once again,
[34:00] Speaker 2: he builds a relationship with a local sugar dealer. He's like, where,
[34:04] Speaker 2: who are all the big dealers in town? They're like, oh,
[34:06] Speaker 2: that guy over there, Robbie, he's super big into sugar. Like, okay,
[34:09] Speaker 2: what's up? And so he placed an order with him
[34:12] Speaker 2: for two hundred and thirty five bags of sugar worth
[34:15] Speaker 2: eighty two thousand rupees to be delivered to his business
[34:18] Speaker 2: in Bombay. Just send it to my office. I love sugar.
[34:21] Speaker 2: I can't get enough. And he's like, okay, eighty two
[34:24] Speaker 2: grand all right, well here's four thousand, and I'm gonna
[34:27] Speaker 2: pay you the rest when I get it, because like,
[34:29] Speaker 2: I don't trust.
[34:30] Speaker 3: You, so like five percent down payment essentially. Yeah okay.
[34:34] Speaker 2: And so instead he goes to Bombay and he meets
[34:38] Speaker 2: with the president of the Bombay Sugar Merchants Association and
[34:42] Speaker 2: he convinces him that he was a close friend of
[34:45] Speaker 2: the president's recently deceased uncle and that he has two
[34:50] Speaker 2: hundred and thirty five bags of sugar to sell. He's like,
[34:52] Speaker 2: I am so sorry to hear about your uncle Rip.
[34:55] Speaker 2: He was a very good friend him. Two hundred and
[34:58] Speaker 2: thirty five bags of sugar.
[35:00] Speaker 3: He would have wanted them.
[35:01] Speaker 2: You're the president of the Bombay Sugar Merchants Association. I
[35:03] Speaker 2: was liked, this makes so much sense. So they agree
[35:07] Speaker 2: on a price, and then the sugar comes to the
[35:09] Speaker 2: train station. Toilal he hands over forged receipts and gives
[35:15] Speaker 2: the sugar to the Merchant's Association president and he he said,
[35:19] Speaker 2: you know what, I know, we agreed on whatever, Like
[35:22] Speaker 2: you know, ninety thousand, I'll take I'll do this for
[35:26] Speaker 2: sixty thousand rupees and we can figure out the rest
[35:30] Speaker 2: with future business deals. This is just a good beginning
[35:32] Speaker 2: of our relationship. So the President's like, I got a
[35:34] Speaker 2: great deal on this sugar.
[35:36] Speaker 3: Got a new business friend.
[35:38] Speaker 2: Yeah. And then Toila puts down four thousand on the
[35:41] Speaker 2: on the shipment, So he's walking away with whatever. Sixty
[35:44] Speaker 2: thousand minus four thousand is fifty four fifty six seventy
[35:49] Speaker 2: eight thousand dollars. It's not rupees one eighteen thousand, Yeah,
[35:54] Speaker 2: fifty fifty or whatever. Fifty six thousand rupees. So he
[36:00] Speaker 2: wand that's a great deal. And he got to play
[36:03] Speaker 2: a part he wants to play.
[36:04] Speaker 3: His character got to wear a fun suit.
[36:05] Speaker 2: So but then he's not done. He's still in his
[36:08] Speaker 2: fun suit, this a little neuro jacket. He then he
[36:11] Speaker 2: writes a letter to the first sugar dealer.
[36:13] Speaker 3: Okay, oh yeah, the one.
[36:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's like, you know what, I want to
[36:16] Speaker 2: buy another one hundred and fifty thousand dollars rupers of
[36:18] Speaker 2: sugar from you.
[36:19] Speaker 3: That works so good last year.
[36:20] Speaker 2: I still haven't paid for the first but like dang.
[36:24] Speaker 3: Fork it over. He got that good sugar.
[36:25] Speaker 2: So before the dealer understands it not only was the
[36:29] Speaker 2: offer fake, but that he wouldn't get paid for the
[36:31] Speaker 2: original shipment, the tila long gone. So he did it.
[36:35] Speaker 2: He got through, sells another one hundred and fifty thousand
[36:38] Speaker 2: dollars to the sugar association.
[36:41] Speaker 3: And on the third one, guys like this is the
[36:42] Speaker 3: one I'd like to be paid on. Yeah, Hello, Hello, Hello.
[36:46] Speaker 2: Michelle, Hello Michelle. So two years later, sure, he gets caught, jailed,
[36:54] Speaker 2: sentenced to twenty six years in prison.
[36:57] Speaker 3: He needs to break.
[36:57] Speaker 2: Out, Yeah for a con. Back in nineteen fifty six.
[37:01] Speaker 2: Oh so it wasn't even like the seventy five sugar con.
[37:04] Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't like recent stuff. So I've been holding
[37:06] Speaker 3: a grudge.
[37:07] Speaker 2: It was when it was back in nineteen fifty six
[37:09] Speaker 2: he conned a bank into giving him four hundred and
[37:11] Speaker 2: fifty thousand rupees.
[37:13] Speaker 3: I mean, come on, that was then. This is now.
[37:15] Speaker 2: So now he's in custody and he gets sent back
[37:18] Speaker 2: to Bombay for another pending trial.
[37:20] Speaker 3: I'm telling you yeah.
[37:21] Speaker 2: And then once he's there, he complains of kidney issues.
[37:24] Speaker 2: He's like, ow, am my kidneys.
[37:26] Speaker 3: Got this pain in the back.
[37:28] Speaker 2: And they're like, you know, we're decent folk, will take
[37:31] Speaker 2: you to the doctor. On the way to the doctor,
[37:33] Speaker 2: he convinces the constable accompanying him to make a quick
[37:36] Speaker 2: stop at a fancy hotel.
[37:38] Speaker 3: I was going to a joke like, He's like, we
[37:40] Speaker 3: just make one. He really did that? Can we make
[37:42] Speaker 3: one quick stop?
[37:43] Speaker 2: They're like okay, And he's at this super fancy hotel.
[37:46] Speaker 3: He's a nice place. I need to go get.
[37:48] Speaker 2: Some money there that I have there, and I'm going
[37:50] Speaker 2: to give you some of it as thanks, because you've
[37:52] Speaker 2: taken such good care of me. How my kidneys, We're.
[37:54] Speaker 3: Going to need money for the commissary in the hospital.
[37:57] Speaker 2: And so at the hotel he tells the com now
[37:59] Speaker 2: my kidney wait in the lobby while I go upstairs
[38:02] Speaker 2: to get the money. And the constable, who probably lost
[38:06] Speaker 2: his job, was like okay.
[38:07] Speaker 3: So he says, you're kidding me, an escape person.
[38:11] Speaker 2: Completely and Natirle is like holding his side in his back.
[38:14] Speaker 3: He's like, God, really milking it.
[38:16] Speaker 2: Kidneys are acting up, dad, And off he goes. And
[38:19] Speaker 2: so the you know, constable's sitting there in the lobby.
[38:22] Speaker 2: Ten minutes, thirty minutes, thirty minutes go by, and then
[38:27] Speaker 2: he realizes I think he I think he left. Do
[38:31] Speaker 2: you take a Napes magazine people watching?
[38:35] Speaker 3: You know what I'm thinking?
[38:36] Speaker 2: I bet he was great people watching.
[38:38] Speaker 3: I bet so.
[38:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, nataral wall is gone. He wouldn't be seen or
[38:41] Speaker 2: like at least identified, for another seven or eight years,
[38:44] Speaker 2: and a lot of people thought he was dead. One
[38:46] Speaker 2: of the deputies who dealt with him over the years
[38:48] Speaker 2: described him as quote a wonder man, though I never
[38:52] Speaker 2: forgot even for a second that he was a cheat
[38:54] Speaker 2: and a criminal. He is articulate and erudite and armed
[38:58] Speaker 2: with a sugarcoated tongue. He is an excellent judge of
[39:01] Speaker 2: character and makes friends very easily.
[39:03] Speaker 3: I love these cops who have these like homore erotic
[39:06] Speaker 3: crushes on the people that they chase. It's just like
[39:09] Speaker 3: he's like, Oh, he's the kind of man I'd want
[39:11] Speaker 3: to be if I was on the other side of
[39:12] Speaker 3: the line.
[39:13] Speaker 2: Well, and I think that part of it is they
[39:14] Speaker 2: must be dealing with absolutely just brick dumb people all day.
[39:21] Speaker 3: Yes, you know, just dumber some of their coworkers have.
[39:26] Speaker 3: And then the criminals they're busted.
[39:28] Speaker 2: Like the criminals, you see people that do stuff and
[39:30] Speaker 2: you think, when in a million years did you think
[39:32] Speaker 2: that would work? And they're just stupid, and so they
[39:36] Speaker 2: you know, like they deal with that. And then when
[39:38] Speaker 2: they have someone who kind of poses a challenge and
[39:41] Speaker 2: is you know, this guy's actually really smart and if
[39:42] Speaker 2: they don't hurt people, they generally not hurting people. And
[39:46] Speaker 2: then you have the notion too that like he's so
[39:48] Speaker 2: charming and he just went we see like you said,
[39:51] Speaker 2: we see this over and over.
[39:52] Speaker 3: He wears fun suits, he's got he'll.
[39:55] Speaker 2: Traveled, prominent. Adam z Apple well so anyw wa n
[40:00] Speaker 2: twirlal not dead at this point, I guess not.
[40:03] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[40:03] Speaker 2: In the mid eighties he found a printer who was
[40:06] Speaker 2: willing to print him falsified bank drafts, okay, and then
[40:10] Speaker 2: he gets these two other buddies and they help him out.
[40:13] Speaker 2: They help him hide the money that he stole, and
[40:15] Speaker 2: now he's ready to start a new.
[40:17] Speaker 3: Scam, new name, new scam.
[40:19] Speaker 2: So in nineteen eighty six, he began targeting jewelers for
[40:22] Speaker 2: thefts once again, but this kind he's using aliases. He's
[40:26] Speaker 2: like making up even crazier stories.
[40:29] Speaker 3: He's seventy years old too. I love this because people
[40:31] Speaker 3: are going to trust a seventy year old man. Now
[40:33] Speaker 3: he's all of a sudden got the gravitazed. Oh, he
[40:35] Speaker 3: wouldn't be counning me. Yeah.
[40:37] Speaker 2: In one theft, he goes to a jeweler in deli
[40:40] Speaker 2: and he tells him that he's the personal secretary to
[40:42] Speaker 2: then Finance Minister VP Singh.
[40:45] Speaker 3: Totally believable.
[40:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean here's this whole Yeah, and that Singh
[40:48] Speaker 2: wanted to buy necklaces for his son's upcoming wedding.
[40:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd buy that.
[40:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, And that makes sense. And so then natwirl Wal
[40:55] Speaker 2: he chooses these really expensive necklaces.
[40:58] Speaker 3: Befitting the son of Singh.
[41:00] Speaker 2: Sure for a wedding, like it's going to be this
[41:02] Speaker 2: lavish event. He and the shop owner they go to
[41:04] Speaker 2: a nearby bank and with the shop owner outside once again,
[41:08] Speaker 2: come with me wait out here. Natwirlal goes inside and
[41:12] Speaker 2: then says he's going to have the bank draft for
[41:14] Speaker 2: the amount oh drawn up. But remember he had those
[41:17] Speaker 2: dudes writing up the fake ones. So he gives the
[41:20] Speaker 2: jeweler a draft for eighty two thousand rupees and left
[41:23] Speaker 2: with the necklaces. And then later you know, guy goes
[41:26] Speaker 2: to the bank. Sorry, those are fake.
[41:29] Speaker 3: We don't know that paper right.
[41:30] Speaker 2: That's this is another per India Today quote. Dressed in
[41:35] Speaker 2: a spotless white shirt and trousers, Natwirlal posed as a
[41:38] Speaker 2: personal assistant to the Union Finance Minister nd Tiwari and
[41:44] Speaker 2: went to a watch dealer in New Delhi's busy Connaught Place.
[41:47] Speaker 2: He told the proprietor, Sorenda Sharma that the Congress Parliamentary
[41:52] Speaker 2: Party was having an important meeting in which the members
[41:55] Speaker 2: were to be presented watches. So I mean that seems
[41:59] Speaker 2: like yeah, I can see them giving out like commemorative watch.
[42:01] Speaker 3: As for this and I like that. They point out
[42:03] Speaker 3: that he was wearing a spotless white outfit, oh, because
[42:06] Speaker 3: they're like, look, this place is so hot and there
[42:08] Speaker 3: are so many people. You know how hard it is
[42:11] Speaker 3: to have a spotless white outfit, just maintained, no sweat,
[42:14] Speaker 3: no stains, nobody's bumped into you, no smudges. And he's like, clearly,
[42:18] Speaker 3: this is a very wealthy person, look at this white outfit.
[42:20] Speaker 2: And he backs it up because the next day he
[42:22] Speaker 2: comes back in a chauf for driven car. Yeah, and
[42:25] Speaker 2: he tells the store owner, Sharma, you know what, pack
[42:29] Speaker 2: up ninety three watches for me. You're thinking like, this
[42:33] Speaker 2: is a big payday. I'm not going to be like,
[42:35] Speaker 2: I don't know about that. So he and then one
[42:37] Speaker 2: of Sharma's employees they go to a nearby bank and
[42:40] Speaker 2: then this is where you know he's still in character.
[42:44] Speaker 2: I'm going to have to get a bank draft to
[42:45] Speaker 2: pay for the watches. The watch employee does he go
[42:48] Speaker 2: into the bank with.
[42:48] Speaker 3: Him, I'm gonna say you no. No.
[42:51] Speaker 2: He stands outside, and I'm wondering too if it's like
[42:55] Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not very familiar with like cast system things,
[42:58] Speaker 2: but is it.
[42:59] Speaker 3: Maybe that was I didn't want to say it, but
[43:01] Speaker 3: that is this. Sometimes they're just kind of not allowed.
[43:03] Speaker 2: They're not allowed in the bank. Yeah, so I could
[43:05] Speaker 2: I could see that happening. So the guys outside natwiral
[43:09] Speaker 2: comes out with appears to be you know, it appears
[43:11] Speaker 2: to be a draft for more than thirty two thousand
[43:13] Speaker 2: rupees and then again so off he goes with all
[43:17] Speaker 2: these watches. Sharma tries to deposit it, finds out its
[43:20] Speaker 2: forge in another He goes to another city, Varanasi, and
[43:24] Speaker 2: he calls himself Unbika Ponde and he said he was
[43:28] Speaker 2: the says he's the purchase officer for a district judge.
[43:33] Speaker 2: And you know what, the judge wants to buy his
[43:36] Speaker 2: staff watches.
[43:37] Speaker 3: A lot of them.
[43:38] Speaker 2: They loves to watch much watch as I.
[43:39] Speaker 3: Love bureaucracy and watches is his new move.
[43:42] Speaker 2: He's like, he probably sees it and he's like these jackets.
[43:45] Speaker 3: No one questions this.
[43:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, So he gives the store owner fake bank draft
[43:48] Speaker 2: twenty five thousand rupees. This time gets eighty watches in return.
[43:52] Speaker 2: So I don't think these are his price.
[43:53] Speaker 3: And that was in the watch business. He watching and
[43:56] Speaker 3: he goes out and opens his jacket.
[43:57] Speaker 2: That's all watches inside.
[44:00] Speaker 3: I ever see those guys anymore. I know, you actually
[44:02] Speaker 3: see them in cities. I remember seeing people in cities
[44:04] Speaker 3: who had had like.
[44:05] Speaker 2: The little tables, yes, with all the fake Rolex watches.
[44:08] Speaker 3: Exactly.
[44:08] Speaker 2: Yeah, my brother was my brother, someone in my family
[44:11] Speaker 2: bought a fake Rolex in Washington, d c. Off a
[44:13] Speaker 2: table in the New.
[44:14] Speaker 3: York was classes Detroit, La San Francisco. I mean it
[44:19] Speaker 3: was amazing, exactly. I missed those days.
[44:21] Speaker 2: Oh good eighty seven. He finally he gets caught at
[44:26] Speaker 2: a fifth shop, okay, and he'd introduced himself as an
[44:29] Speaker 2: officer of the state legislature, and he was there to
[44:32] Speaker 2: buy fifty.
[44:33] Speaker 3: Five Windings watches, watches.
[44:38] Speaker 2: And these are only worth twenty eight thousand rupees. But
[44:41] Speaker 2: there again gifts for employees. But then he goes to
[44:45] Speaker 2: like hand the bank draft over to the owner. And
[44:47] Speaker 2: I don't know what had happened with his accomplices, if
[44:50] Speaker 2: maybe they'd fallen off or he thought he didn't need
[44:52] Speaker 2: them anymore. He hands the bank drafts to the owner
[44:55] Speaker 2: of the shop, and they looked so fake that the
[44:58] Speaker 2: store owner got suspicious and then went back and quietly called.
[45:01] Speaker 3: The cops and you can't lose your your paperman. You
[45:05] Speaker 3: got a good forger, you got it.
[45:07] Speaker 2: He knew it was bad. This is Natwaro later said,
[45:09] Speaker 2: quote the printing was so bad, I myself was wondering
[45:11] Speaker 2: whether anyone would accept it.
[45:15] Speaker 3: You you know better than that.
[45:18] Speaker 2: He gets win that, like, oh my god. I think
[45:20] Speaker 2: he called the cops because he hands his terrible paper
[45:23] Speaker 2: and the guy's like, oh yeah, let me go in
[45:24] Speaker 2: the back. So he runs outside. He jumps in a
[45:27] Speaker 2: rickshaw and.
[45:28] Speaker 3: Then like can you imagine that getting away at a
[45:30] Speaker 3: rich He didn't faster faster the cops caught up.
[45:33] Speaker 2: They're like walking into what he He didn't have it over.
[45:40] Speaker 2: He didn't have any money on him, and police didn't
[45:43] Speaker 2: know where he kept all the money that he'd stolen
[45:45] Speaker 2: over the years. He told police that he was like
[45:48] Speaker 2: basically Robin Hood. He said he stole only from quote
[45:52] Speaker 2: rich capitalists, and he gave the money to the poor.
[45:55] Speaker 3: Was he the poor?
[45:56] Speaker 2: Probably he went and broke his dad off one hundred
[46:00] Speaker 2: he did.
[46:00] Speaker 3: I was kind of I believe him.
[46:03] Speaker 2: I believe I prefer to spreading it around.
[46:05] Speaker 3: Okay, that's cool, And you.
[46:06] Speaker 2: Know he would get these accomplices or like you know
[46:09] Speaker 2: you got you got talent, you just don't see it.
[46:11] Speaker 2: You could draw up fake bank drafts. I believe in you.
[46:14] Speaker 3: Yes, just trot, just.
[46:18] Speaker 2: Raising the community up. Police doubted the whole robinhood thing,
[46:23] Speaker 2: but like I said, he would sometimes he'd go back
[46:26] Speaker 2: to his home village, not just the one time, and
[46:28] Speaker 2: the town when they knew that he was coming, they
[46:31] Speaker 2: would prepare like this big meal for him. I'm guessing
[46:33] Speaker 2: that he was he would hand out rupees to like
[46:36] Speaker 2: the needy in town.
[46:37] Speaker 3: Let's go pro robinhood on. Let's say it.
[46:39] Speaker 2: I like that story better. When he was arrested in
[46:42] Speaker 2: November of nineteen eighty seven, he had over one hundred
[46:45] Speaker 2: open cases against him in eight different Indian states.
[46:48] Speaker 3: Nice in his golden years. He's like, look at that way.
[46:52] Speaker 2: Well, and by that point he had been sentenced at
[46:55] Speaker 2: various times to a total of one hundred and thirteen years,
[46:58] Speaker 2: and like collectively he don't only served about twenty of those,
[47:01] Speaker 2: so like he'd been inside, yeah, but like one hundred
[47:04] Speaker 2: and thirteen. So they arrest him. He says that he's married,
[47:07] Speaker 2: he had been married, and he has a son, but
[47:09] Speaker 2: that they both died. However, it's also said that his
[47:13] Speaker 2: wife was still alive and living in Bihar, and that
[47:16] Speaker 2: his only child was a daughter, and that she married
[47:18] Speaker 2: and lived outside of India. So like, no one can
[47:21] Speaker 2: ever get a straight story out of him.
[47:22] Speaker 3: I wouldn't believe it. I mean, whatever he says, I
[47:24] Speaker 3: wouldn't believe it. Someone else have to come in and
[47:26] Speaker 3: be like, okay, take take and test my DMA.
[47:28] Speaker 2: Well, then you wonder what about the original Natwirlo.
[47:31] Speaker 3: If it even is the same person.
[47:33] Speaker 2: Maybe he's the one who's married and has a daughter,
[47:35] Speaker 2: you know who.
[47:36] Speaker 3: Maybe this is a dread pirate Robert situation where he's
[47:39] Speaker 3: just passed on the name to his most accomplished acolyte.
[47:42] Speaker 2: That could be. You know what it's like, Menudo, They
[47:44] Speaker 2: rotate them in and out. June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety six.
[47:48] Speaker 2: He's eighty four years old.
[47:49] Speaker 3: Okay, you know I love the ages. Yeah.
[47:51] Speaker 2: He disappeared from the New Delhi Railway station. He'd been
[47:55] Speaker 2: taken to Delhi from where he'd been in custody for
[47:58] Speaker 2: a medical checkup.
[47:59] Speaker 3: Okay, my kidneys again.
[48:01] Speaker 2: And at the station, the cops went to drop off
[48:03] Speaker 2: his wheelchair and he was left with a quote jail
[48:05] Speaker 2: sweeper to guard him. It's like a soccer sweeper, like
[48:10] Speaker 2: just any position you need special Yeah, and so he
[48:15] Speaker 2: asked the man for some tea, and like you know,
[48:17] Speaker 2: they're going to respect the elderly, this jail sweeper leaves
[48:21] Speaker 2: to go get some. Natwir Wall suddenly, now able to
[48:25] Speaker 2: walk really easily, just gets up and runs off. So
[48:28] Speaker 2: he's like in a wheelchair. Element kidneys and then off
[48:30] Speaker 2: he goes. That is the last reported public sighting of him.
[48:34] Speaker 3: Oh wow. He he actually disappears into the crowd like
[48:37] Speaker 3: pro long kuiser.
[48:38] Speaker 2: They saw completely completely. In total, he escaped from custody
[48:42] Speaker 2: at least ten different times.
[48:44] Speaker 3: This kind's incredible.
[48:45] Speaker 2: His legend continued even in death. So in July of
[48:48] Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, his lawyer said he died in
[48:51] Speaker 2: that month of the age of ninety seven, and he
[48:53] Speaker 2: petitioned the court to dismiss the one hundred cases still
[48:56] Speaker 2: pending against his client but his brother because he's dead.
[49:01] Speaker 2: Nataral's brother said that Natir Whal had actually died sometime
[49:05] Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety six, and he couldn't remember the exact day,
[49:08] Speaker 2: but he had personally cremated the body.
[49:10] Speaker 3: But then you wonder I personally cremated, like not.
[49:13] Speaker 2: Professionally like you know as you do.
[49:15] Speaker 3: Ah, okay, he brought he did the actual.
[49:17] Speaker 2: Region, the ritual. But here's the thing, like which natoir Wal?
[49:21] Speaker 3: Yes, which one are we talking about? First?
[49:22] Speaker 2: I don't believe anybody, And like how long had it
[49:25] Speaker 2: been since his brother saw him? And was that the
[49:28] Speaker 2: favorite brother back? You know, there's so many questions. In India,
[49:34] Speaker 2: the name Natwaral is apparently still used common.
[49:38] Speaker 3: It's like, no, they.
[49:38] Speaker 2: People use it as a pejorative against public officials.
[49:41] Speaker 3: Oh oh yeah.
[49:42] Speaker 2: So there's this book The Most Notorious jail Breakers Untold
[49:45] Speaker 2: Stories of Escape Convicts by a Beer Kapor quote. If
[49:49] Speaker 2: you are a manipulative personality in public life, in all likelihood,
[49:53] Speaker 2: you'll be called Natarilal.
[49:55] Speaker 3: Hum.
[49:56] Speaker 2: Yeah. In twenty twenty one, it was reported that in
[49:59] Speaker 2: a fe bill referred to another official as the Natwilal
[50:03] Speaker 2: of Indian politics and call them a liar and cheater?
[50:06] Speaker 3: Was it mody the Prime Minister?
[50:07] Speaker 2: I don't know. Aspiring criminals use the name as well.
[50:11] Speaker 2: In twenty eleven, a twenty one year old was arrested
[50:14] Speaker 2: for stealing almost two million rupees from a business bank
[50:16] Speaker 2: account by pretending to be its director. He said he'd
[50:19] Speaker 2: been inspired by the nineteen seventy nine Mister natoir Wal
[50:23] Speaker 2: movie since he was a kid, and that he would
[50:26] Speaker 2: sometimes use Natwarilal as one of his aliases. So what's
[50:30] Speaker 2: this about the movie right now?
[50:31] Speaker 3: What's dying?
[50:32] Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy nine, a movie called Mister Natwarlal title
[50:37] Speaker 2: loosely based on his life. Well, the title character everything. Yeah,
[50:41] Speaker 2: the title character was played by the movie superstar amitab Bakchun.
[50:46] Speaker 2: This is according to Wikipedia. He's quote widely recognized as
[50:49] Speaker 2: one of the greatest actors of all time. He is
[50:51] Speaker 2: considered to be amongst the most accomplished and influential actors
[50:54] Speaker 2: in the history of Indian cinema. Now that's Wikipedia, which
[50:58] Speaker 2: means that either he or his agent wrote it. And
[51:01] Speaker 2: I love that for him.
[51:02] Speaker 3: I would love if that, you know, if it was
[51:04] Speaker 3: actually true and that he was. I have no idea
[51:07] Speaker 3: a really complish.
[51:08] Speaker 2: I think he is. His family thinks he is would
[51:11] Speaker 2: be great.
[51:11] Speaker 3: I like the Lawrence Olivier of India poor or trade this.
[51:14] Speaker 2: Category amazing, I'm saying, yeah, so the brando, but the
[51:17] Speaker 2: real Toilal not a fan of the film.
[51:20] Speaker 3: Oh, he's like, I didn't like the cast.
[51:22] Speaker 2: He said it quote distorted his life.
[51:24] Speaker 3: Well, they said loosely bass and I was upset with that.
[51:27] Speaker 2: He filed a defamation suit against the movie, but he
[51:30] Speaker 2: withdrew it when he managed to convince the star to
[51:33] Speaker 2: pay him three hundred thousand rupees instead.
[51:35] Speaker 3: Wait, he shook down the show down.
[51:37] Speaker 2: The movie star. Yeah, he's like, I hate it.
[51:40] Speaker 3: Give me three three I'll say I love it.
[51:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll leave you alone. In twenty sixteen, a seventy
[51:47] Speaker 2: seven year old former lawyer was arrested for over one
[51:50] Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five crimes and he had this history
[51:53] Speaker 2: of forgery. He was nicknamed super Natoilal. There's also a
[51:57] Speaker 2: more recent adaptation of the movie from twenty to Her
[52:00] Speaker 2: twenty twenty four called Mister Natwirla. There's this like crazy
[52:04] Speaker 2: music video from the film that researcher Marissa found, Like
[52:08] Speaker 2: the main.
[52:08] Speaker 3: Character Bollywood style. Is it like a musical?
[52:11] Speaker 2: I don't know about the movie. We couldn't I couldn't
[52:13] Speaker 2: find a clip from the movie. We found this music video, okay,
[52:15] Speaker 2: and the main character is this man and the woman.
[52:17] Speaker 2: They have this really hilarious workout scene. It's like a
[52:20] Speaker 2: like a ballad song sure, where she's basically just like
[52:23] Speaker 2: laying on him as he uses various workout machines. So
[52:27] Speaker 2: like he's on an elliptical and she's she's like holding
[52:31] Speaker 2: onto him like a like a baby koala, or like
[52:34] Speaker 2: he's doing push ups and she's laying on his back.
[52:36] Speaker 2: It's really weird the whole you know. So and Marissa
[52:40] Speaker 2: was like, is that how people work out? Like, I
[52:42] Speaker 2: don't know. I don't go to the either. We're like, okay,
[52:46] Speaker 2: I guess that's what happens.
[52:47] Speaker 3: Now happens.
[52:50] Speaker 2: So, Saren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
[52:52] Speaker 3: Oh man, my ridiculous takeaway is I know this sounds
[52:57] Speaker 3: dumb that I should fixate on this, but you talked
[52:59] Speaker 3: about the dad working in the trains. I've always wanted
[53:01] Speaker 3: to go to India and right on top of a
[53:03] Speaker 3: train with a bunch of people, you could do that.
[53:06] Speaker 3: I know it's easy, I know it's an accomplishable goal,
[53:08] Speaker 3: but like it's ridiculous that I want to do that.
[53:11] Speaker 3: And that's the one thing you're telling me all this
[53:12] Speaker 3: stuff and I'm like, man, I gotta I gotta go
[53:14] Speaker 3: do that. I gotta go to India and ride on
[53:17] Speaker 3: the top of a train for like Miles and Miles.
[53:20] Speaker 2: Let's make it happen and we can like we can
[53:22] Speaker 2: record an episode from.
[53:23] Speaker 3: The live from the top of a train. Well, you
[53:25] Speaker 3: can record it and I'll just yeah, you can be
[53:28] Speaker 3: reasonably seated inside exactly that way. The mic doesn't have
[53:31] Speaker 3: all the feedback from that of the wind. What's your Elizabeth? Uh?
[53:35] Speaker 2: You know what? This guy didn't seem to hurt anyone
[53:40] Speaker 2: and didn't seem to like scam anyone who couldn't take it,
[53:43] Speaker 2: So A plus plus.
[53:45] Speaker 3: Yeah, always good. That's good in our both books.
[53:48] Speaker 2: You know what I need?
[53:49] Speaker 3: Though, what do you need to talk back? I can't
[53:51] Speaker 3: do that for you. Producer Dave, can you help this
[53:53] Speaker 3: lady out?
[53:56] Speaker 2: Oh? I let you?
[54:06] Speaker 4: Hey, Elizabeth, Hey, Aaron, I just want to sorry. I
[54:12] Speaker 4: just want to let y'all know that when I was
[54:15] Speaker 4: listening to the LifeLock con episode, I was listening to
[54:23] Speaker 4: an amazing ad break and I heard an ad for
[54:25] Speaker 4: guess what LifeLock by Norton, and I thought it was ridiculous.
[54:29] Speaker 4: By all love this show.
[54:32] Speaker 3: I think LifeLock loves us.
[54:33] Speaker 2: I mean I hear that all the time.
[54:36] Speaker 3: That was like an extended ad for us.
[54:37] Speaker 2: I don't know that algorithm plugs the ad in during
[54:41] Speaker 2: I just please don't tell LifeLock. I think it is
[54:46] Speaker 2: so funny and ridiculous and I love it. I have it. Uh,
[54:50] Speaker 2: that's it for today. You can find us online at
[54:52] Speaker 2: ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also on social media at
[54:55] Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime. Email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com and
[55:00] Speaker 2: leave us a talk back please on the iHeart app
[55:04] Speaker 2: reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and
[55:13] Speaker 2: Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Cotton Kingpin Dave Kusten,
[55:17] Speaker 2: starring Emilie Rutger as Judith. Research is by Indian railroad
[55:22] Speaker 2: barons mursa Brown and Andrea song Sharpened Tear. The theme
[55:25] Speaker 2: song is by bribed prison guards Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton.
[55:29] Speaker 2: Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair
[55:33] Speaker 2: and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Under. Executive producers are
[55:37] Speaker 2: famous Indian outlaws Ben Bowen and Nolbur.
[55:46] Speaker 3: Dis QUI say it one more time crime.
[55:52] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
[55:56] Speaker 1: My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or
[55:59] Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.