Thief who posed as judge, bailed out criminals dies at 85

New Delhi: From posing as a judge and granting bail to undertrials to stealing fancy cars for personal commute, Dhani Ram Mittal had several capers to his name in his decades-long career in crime.

He died on Thursday aged 85 due to health issues, police said.

Named in more than 150 theft cases in Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab and Rajasthan, Mittal, had been put behind bars over 90 times.

"His crime list is long, he was directly involved in more than 1,000 cases of theft, cheating, impersonation and forgery in his lifetime," a senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

According to police sources, Mittal was first involved in a case of cheating 1964 and did not stop.

A senior officer of the Delhi police recalled that Mittal stole cars from the parking lot of Jhajjar court in Haryana for personal use.

"When we were reading his criminal profile, we got to know that he managed to pose as a judge for a few days in Jhajjar and passed orders to release criminals serving long sentences," he said.

The officer said Mittal was well educated and had done his BSc in first class from Rohtak and later went on to do LLB from Rajasthan.

"After his LLB, he worked as munshi (clerk) for different advocates. But he used to steal cars for his personal joy. He also forged documents and procured a job as a station master and worked from 1968 to 1974. He died on Thursday, as he was ill and suffered a cardiac arrest," said the officer.

In 2016, aged 77, he was arrested for stealing a car in Rani Bagh.

"This was his 95th arrest," the officer said.

Mittal was cremated by his son at Delhi's Nigambodh Ghat.