On April 18th, a chapter closed on the life of a notorious figure that could well belong to the plot of a gripping crime novel. Dhani Ram Mittal, also infamously clad with the epithet ‘super thief’, breathed his last at the age of 85. His tale of deception and thievery began back in 1968, crafting a narrative so unbelievably riveting that it crossed the bounds of ordinary crime stories.
In Haryana, where his life of crime took root, Mittal, then a young graduate with a degree in BSc, embarked on a dual life. By daylight, he was a station master, a respectable position in the society. Yet, under the shadow of dusk, he slipped into the dark alleys of illegal endeavors. It was the court parking lots where he found his playground, lifting cars with an air of audacity that seemed almost cinematic in nature.
But Mittal’s journey through the criminal world escalated beyond mere theft. Fate, or perhaps his own boldness, saw him assuming the identity of a judge. This was after he found himself on a ‘forced leave order’ due to a scuffle with the judicial system. Taking the place of a magistrate in Jhajjar, he donned the robes, adjudicated cases, and made decisions that leaned heavily towards liberty, setting free individuals who otherwise would have been confined to the penitentiaries.
The peak of Mittal’s audacity might have come when he orchestrated a stint that led to an additional session judge of Jhajjar court being sent on a concocted two-month leave. It was within this interlude that Mittal positioned himself upon the judicial chair, unlawfully liberating over two thousand offenders from the grip of the law, an act of mass prison-break that could very well fit the frames of a heist film.
With time, adapting to the changing scenarios became imperative for survival in the underbelly. Mittal momentarily resorted to a clerical job in Haryana’s transport department. What could have been a step towards turning over a new leaf led him to Kolkata, where he attended a graphology course – maybe an attempt to refine the art of forgery that so powerfully underscored much of his later exploits.
Despite his detours, Mittal’s love – or vice – for both cars and courtrooms remained consistent. His criminal record swelled over time with more than a thousand criminal acts to his name, and a trail of car theft spanning across multiple states including Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
Armed with degrees in law and graphology, one might ponder how Mittal found himself spiraling down a path that would lead to such a notorious legacy. In his early days, he exploited clerical access to craft counterfeit documentation and licenses, laying down the foundation of a career that thrived in the shadows.
Age, however, brings an inevitable slowdown even in the world of vice. Mittal’s notoriety saw a diminishment with his last recorded arrest in 2016 for car theft in Delhi’s Rani Bagh. It was, notably, his 95th skirmish with the wheels of justice.
In his final years, Dhani Ram Mittal’s body bore the harsh consequences of his stroke-induced paralysis. His declining health became a chain heavier than those found in prison, one that he could not break away from. On that April day, as flames consumed his mortal remains at Nigambodh Ghat, and the final rites were being performed, it was the end of an era – of a life lived in infamy, a journey that befitted the age-old adage: Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
