A 66-year-old man, who allegedly married 17 women in four years, has been arrested by Bhubaneswar police on Monday.
Over the last three decades, Ramesh Chandra Swain, who pretended as a doctor and a senior central government official, married educated and highly placed women from 10 different states. Among the women he cheated include doctors, teachers, a chartered accountant, an assistant commandant of Indo-Tibetan Border Police, a Supreme Court lawyer, an officer of the Kerala Administrative Service and a senior executive from an insurance company.
Though police has been monitoring his location and movements, it was not easy to catch him as he did not stay anywhere for long for reasons of safety. However, he was not aware that a case was registered in his name. Now he was arrested while driving a rented car near Aiginia, near Bhubaneshwar. Police have found three PAN cards and 11 ATM cards from him.
A court has granted a five-day police custody of the accused and the case is being investigated by a special team of senior police officers.
Posing as a Central government officer under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Swain used to impress his victims by showing red beacons on the top of his cars. After trapping them into marriage and swindling their money he deserted them and remained inaccessible.
Swain got married for the first time in 1982, and the last in 2020. He has two childern from two wives.
In May 2021, a 48-year-old school teacher from New Delhi lodged a complaint with the Commissionerates of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack police alleging that her husband had married 10 women in the past and robbed her of Rs 13 lakh. Swain produced a fake birth certificate that he was born in 1971 and married her on July 29, 2018 at Arya Samaj Janakpuri. On the direction of Deputy Commissioner of Police Umashankar Dash, a case was registered at the Women's Police Station. The school teacher, who learned of his past history from her maid servant, also contacted other women who were cheated by him.
On receiving the complaint, Bhubaneswar police formed a task force to track Ramesh alias Dr Bibhu Prakash Swain alias Dr Ramani Ranjan Swain, who belongs to Singhalo in Kendrapara district.
Police have been able to contact many more women who were cheated by Swain, who studied only upto class 10. Earlier police had traced 14 women victims, but on further investigation they found he had married four more women.
The accused told the investigating officers that he had completed plus two in science from Kendrapara college and later studied courses in medical laboratory technology from a college in Kochi and alternative medicine from Kolkata. But police are investigating his education. He made money by deceiving not only women but also banks, students and job seekers. In 2006, he was arrested by the Ernakulam police for fraudulently getting loans by forging documents claiming to be a central government official.
Swain was arrested by the Hyderabad police in 2010 for cheating youths by promising them MBBS seats and jobs. He claimed to have completed his MBBS from Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR) in Burla.
