The Dhaka Times Desk Emperor Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal is world famous. Every day thousands of tourists from different parts of the world come to India. It is natural that anyone would be surprised to hear about the sale of the Taj Mahal.
Maybe many people think that everything can be bought with money, so why can't Taj Mahal be bought? Because money can do many things. If the Taj Mahal could really be bought! But a gentleman would really arrange that! His name is Natbarlal. He sold Emperor Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal three times, Red Fort twice and Rashtrapati Bhavan once!
What's more, Natbarlal also sold the Parliament building of India with 545 members! For five decades after India's independence, the name Natbarlal was a burning symbol of thuggery. He was very determined to cheat people and grab money.
Natbarlal shook India with his various fraudulent activities. But this name is also not his real name. He had more than 50 aliases. His real name is Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava.
It is known that he was born in 1912 in Bangra village of Siwan district of Bihar. It was as if he had a store of new ideas to deceive people. Not only that, the person was very skilled in forging signatures of popular people.
Originally he was a lawyer in professional life. But he never settled in that profession. Instead, he chose to deceive people. Could forge signatures very well. So he chose the same as capital.
The surprising thing is that he used to introduce himself to foreigners as an important official of the government to sell various structures including the Taj Mahal. And he gave the necessary documents as proof of sale! And these documents had the signature of the then President of India Rajendra Prasad!
Natbarlal made himself almost undetectable by his fancy tricks of speech and deception. Industrialists like Tata, Birla and Dhirubhai Ambani were among Natbar's hit list. He used to grab lakhs of rupees as a social worker. Apart from this, Natbarlal cheated the shopkeepers with fake checks of lakhs of rupees.
According to media reports, there were at least 100 cases against Natbar in 8 provinces of India. He was sentenced to 113 years in prison in these cases. Police arrested Natbarlal. However, he escaped from jail 8 times. Served at least 20 years in jail.
It is known that he was arrested for the last time in 1996 at the age of 84. However, due to illness, Natbarlal was shifted from Kanpur Jail to All India Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in New Delhi.
There are various information about when Natbarlal died. His lawyers said he died on July 25, 2009. However, his brother Ganga Prasad Srivastava claims that Natbar died in 1996!
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