Chapter 1
This story is about an educated thief who was arrested ninety-four times during his life. He was so vicious that he became a judge and presided over a court for more than forty days being a thief.
He was so popular amongst convicts that, they wanted to learn tips of stealing from him. He was a student of the law and thus took advantage of his knowledge in getting bail. All these aspects make this story unique and intriguing.
The thief also was a handwriting expert and an expert in preparing duplicate documents with ease. He was expert in stealing cars and selling those cars to others with forged documents.
He was very bold in his way of communication that he once escaped from the courtroom itself. Because of his deeds, he is considered as the most intelligent thief of India. It never happened anywhere in the world that a thief had dared to become a Judge and preside over the courtroom.
He was arrested so many times in his career that police used to smile at him after every arrest as they were tired of arresting him. Judge of the court was tired of seeing his face after every arrest. They used to smile at him, with the intent that he was arrested again.
He is more than eighty years now and was last arrested for his crime in 2016 when his age was seventy-seven. His knowledge of the law helped him to get bail easily. There were many such instances when people never reported his crime to police even after catching him due to his age.
Chapter 2
Dhani Ram Mittal, a name that had become synonymous with stealing and have attained such height in the path of crime that there is no other thief of his calibre. Born in 1939 in a place named Bhiwani in the Haryana state of India. He was like any other ambitious youth to the age of twenty-five.
He completed his graduation from Rohtak and was fair in studies. He belonged to a family of educated people his elder brother was a judge in a court in Panipat.
He started searching for a job in 1964, he appeared for many written exams for government jobs but was not able to succeed. He knew that getting a government job was very difficult through fair means. He started visiting the Road and Transportation Office (RTO) and learned how the driving license was issued to a person purchasing a new vehicle.
Dhani Ram Mittal observed that people were harassed for obtaining a driving license, touts used to take advantage of this situation by charging a hefty commission for completing their paperwork for obtaining the driving license. There he learned how to create a forged and duplicate document.
He started working in RTO as a tout, helping vehicle owners to obtain their driving license by submitting forged documents with forged signature thus making money soon realizing that these forged documents could be used elsewhere for his purpose.
He started preparing his own forged training documents and educational certificates. In the year 1968, with these forged documents he applied for Indian Railways and was appointed as a station master. Based on these forged documents he worked as a station master for six long years from 1968 to 1974.
Chapter 3
Dhani Ram Mittal was bored with his job of the station master and wanted to do something big. He quit his job and started stealing new cars. Cars during that time were quite expensive and considered an item of luxury.
He got arrested a few times while trying to steal cars, people buying those cars wanted proper documents for the vehicle. Lawyers charged hefty fees for his bail after arrests he started thinking about a way to get rid of all these things.
He went to Jaipur and studied law and obtained an LLB degree from Rajasthan. He continued his work of stealing and selling those cars to support his finances. After attaining his degree in law, he did a course on handwriting and mastered to differentiate between actual and forged document. He also did a course on Graphology (a study to identify the personal characteristics by analyzing handwriting).
Dhani Ram Mittal continued with his work of stealing from all important cities of north India he was caught many times for his actions and produced before the court. He used to come out on bail on every single occasion after spending a few days in jail.
His confidence level was also very high. He was caught in New Delhi for stealing a car and appeared before the judge in the court. The judge recognized him and wearily said: “You are caught again, just get out from my court”. He stood up and went out of the courtroom with two police guards escorting him.
Chapter 4
Dhani Ram Mittal ordered tea for him and two police escorts and started narrating how the judge got angry with him and without even listening to him just told him to leave. Pretending to visit washroom, he gave the police escorts a slip and fled.
As his case came up for hearing in the court, and judge enquired about the convict, the police escorts told that Dhani Ram convinced us that judge had told him to leave before hearing his case. The judge was furious and ordered police to re-arrest Dhani Ram.
A few days later, he was arrested again and produced up before the court. He used to prepare his own case as he was a law graduate and often caught the arguments of other lawyers and start giving his arguments. He kept on coming out of jail and again re-arrested for another crime and this continued.
He had stolen over one thousand cars, and he always used to steal them in broad daylight by just opening the door with a master key. He had never beaten or assaulted anyone during his entire career. He used to drive a stolen car and park it in the parking lot. Then from the parking steal another car and drive it to a safe location and return to get his car.
He was caught by the people many times while trying to steal a car; he avoided the situation by stating that instead of his car he had mistakenly opened another’s car. Once he finds out there was no one overlooking him, he used to drive the stolen car to a safe location and prepare forged documents to sell the stolen car.
Chapter 5
Dhani Ram Mittal was considered as the most intelligent thief of all times because of an incident where he pronounced himself as judge and presided over court for forty days. It never happened in the history of any country that a thief became a judge of the court.
Middle of 1980’s when he has completed all his studies and obtained his degree of law he read a newspaper report that a departmental enquiry was initiated against the additional civil judge of Jhajjar, a city of Haryana related to corruption issues. This enquiry was initiated by Punjab and Haryana High Court.
He prepared a forged letter in the name of Punjab and Haryana High Court registrar. In the letter, he included the name of the additional civil judge of Jhajjar stating that due to the ongoing departmental enquiry, you are requested to go on leave for two months during which you will not preside over the court activities or take part in any judgement. He sent this letter by the courier that was received by the office of the additional civil judge of Jhajjar.
After receiving the letter, the additional civil judge went on leave for two months as the letter mentioned. Soon after he left another letter was received by the office of the additional civil judge from Punjab and Haryana High Court registrar. This letter stated that, as the additional civil judge of Jhajjar was sent on leave for two months, we are appointing another additional civil judge for fast settlement of ongoing cases.
A new judge arrives on that date and for forty days presides over the court pronouncing judgement to the cases brought in front of him. During this period, he grants bail to a whopping 2470 convicts by presiding over the court every day from morning 9 AM to 5 PM.
He rejected bail for some convicts, for others he pronounces light prison terms. The convicts were very happy about this new judge. The person who arrived as new additional civil judge of Jhajjar was none other than the master thief Dhani Ram Mittal.
Chapter 6
Forty days later suddenly the Dhani Ram Mittal, who assumed the post of additional civil judge of Jhajjar based on forged documents, left the place. He was aware of discussions that were taking place in the court regarding the decisions pronounced by him.
The office of additional civil judge contacted Punjab and Haryana High Court registrar stating that they are not able to find their new judge. The Punjab and Haryana High Court registrar was bewildered by the facts. He stated there was no letter by him to send additional civil judge of Jhajjar on leave.
After enquiry, it came to light that it was Dhani Ram Mittal who presided over as the additional civil judge for forty days. The judgements passed by him during those forty days was over-ruled, and a fresh trial of all the convicts was ordered.
Later when he was arrested and questioned, he said it was done just for curiosity. As he was a student of law, he gave bail to convicts committing petty crimes and never gave bail to rapists or murderers.
Dhani Ram Mittal was last arrested by police for stealing three brand new cars from three different places in New Delhi in 2016 at the age of seventy-seven and spent a few months in prison before receiving bail.
A master thief who was caught about ninety-four times in his carrier and was so intelligent, that he presided as a judge in a court for forty days makes this story of Dhani Ram Mittal a unique story.
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