In a shocking incident from Odisha, a man was arrested for marrying 14 women across 7 states in the country. The man would pose as a doctor and would dupe them into marrying him and then proceed to swindle them.
The man was identified as 54-year-old Bidhu Prakash Swain (alias Ramesh Swain). He is a resident of Kendrapara district, Odisha. Swain targeted divorcees and middle-aged women. He would pose as a doctor from the Union Health Ministry and would contact them through various social media sites and matrimonial sites.
In a statement, the Bhubaneswar DCP Umashankar Dash said, “His targets were highly-educated and worked in senior positions at various government and private organizations. He had his eyes on their money."
He further added, "We are planning to conduct a detailed financial investigation into the fraud. We will seek a longer remand of the accused for a detailed probe. On the long roster of his victims, there was a supreme court advocate and a senior central armed police force official. He managed to collect more than Rs10 lakh from the CAPF officer."
According to the police reports, he has fathered five children. He first got married in 1982 and 2002. Then in between 2002 and 2020, he married the rest of victims. After the wedding, he would stay at home for a while and then leave giving excuses of work and travel to the north east and Bhubaneswar.
The accused was arrested based on a complaint filed by a Delhi-based teacher in July 2021. The victim, in her complaint, said that Swain had married her at an Arya Samaj temple in New Delhi. Following the complaint, he was arrested from a rented accommodation in the Khandagiri area of Bhubaneswar and booked under sections 498 (A), 419, 468, 471 and 494 of the Indian Penal Code.
The police also discovered 11 ATM cards, 4 Aadhaar cards with different identities, and a school certificate from Bihar under yet another identity. He was also arrested in Hyderabad earlier for duping MBA students on the pretext of providing them jobs. He has also been arrested for loan fraud in Ernakulam, Kerala.
(With inputs from India Today).
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