A 66-year-old man in Odisha was arrested earlier this week after he allegedly married 14 women across seven states over 38 years. Days after his arrest, three more women came forward, claiming that he had married them as well.
His story is eerily similar to that of Israeli con man Simon Leviev, who cheated a number of women he met through the dating app Tinder. A Netflix documentary, "Tinder Swindler", was released this month.
Ramesh Chandra Swain assumed the fake identity of a doctor and that of a deputy director general under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and approached middle-aged women seeking companionship. The man, who is from a coastal village in Odisha's Kendrapara district, befriended women on matrimonial websites and deftly concealed his matrimonial status.
He got married for the first time in 1982, and the last in 2020.
Swain acquired different names, such as Dr Bibhu Prakash Swain and Dr Ramani Ranjan Swain, as he persuaded women from various backgrounds.
Among his victims were school and college teachers, policewomen, a Delhi High Court lawyer, an assistant commandant of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, a chartered accountant and a physician, the police said. He allegedly cheated them of lakhs of rupees before he moved to his next target.
“Three more wives of the fake doctor have been identified," Bhubaneswar Deputy Commissioner of Police US Dash said after three more women came forward.
According to the police, three of his wives live in Delhi, four in Odisha, two each in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Assam, and one each in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Chhattisgarh.
Two of his three children with the first wife are doctors and settled abroad, while his second wife is a medical practitioner who lives in Prayagraj.
The officer said a student from Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district also alleged that the fake doctor had cheated him of Rs 18 lakh after assuring him a seat in a medical college in the state. His mobile phones will be sent to the forensic lab and his financial transactions will be probed, he said.
The police will also seek the help of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since the accused was found in possession of three PAN cards and 11 ATM cards.
Swain was arrested on Monday, Valentine’s Day, after his latest wife from Delhi, whom he married in 2020, approached the cops. The woman is a teacher and the two got married at an Arya Samaj temple in Delhi.
"I have not married all these women and I am indeed a doctor," Swain claimed while being escorted to the court. He is currently in judicial custody.
(With inputs from PTI)
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