Ramesh Swain, 65, hailing from Patkura in Kendrapara district of Odisha is the most discussed person in Odisha, oustripping politicians dominating ongoing rural polls at the moment. A 9th standard graduate, he has married 18 ladies posing as a doctor and a highly-placed Central government officer. Most of the ladies he has duped into marriage are highly educated. Sixteen of his wives are from other states, whom he swindled by taking away money or ornaments. After arresting him this month on a complaint by one his wives from Delhi, Bhubaneswar police has taken him on remand. Umashankar Dash, DCP, Bhubaneswar, said a team consisting of officials from the anti-fraud cell in his office and Bhubaneswar women police station will investigate the case.
The saga of Swain
DCP Dash said his second marriage was in 1982, when he married a lady doctor from Paradeep in Odisha. She told the police that she treated Swain as his husband, and that their kids are studying at the Delhi Public School. The other ladies that Swain trapped through the matrimonial columns are mostly 45-plus in age and well-placed. According to reports, Swain was more interested in their riches than maintaining a conjugal life with them. One of his wives, a lady doctor from Guwahati in Assam, fainted and was admitted to a hospital after listening to her conman husband's escapades. Swain has reportedly taken away Rs 23 lakh from her. According to the DCP, the police has a list of all his wives, though some of them are hesitant now because of social stigma. That is why the police has appointed a lawyer as counsellor to be in touch with those women. Besides, women police suspect Swain was in relationships with more women. One man from Kerala telephoned to tell the police that Swain was in a relationship with his sister and had duped her of Rs 1.5 lakh. But, he has not sent a formal compaint.
Swain was earlier arrested in Hyderabad and Ernakulam in fraud and cheating cases. Swain's victims are from Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh. How he deals with highly educated women, particularly while talking to them, remains a mystery. The police say he is all right in Hindi, but he fumbles in English. After remand, he has not been opening up. The police will send his mobile phone to a forensic laboratory. The RBI will be approached to access his bank details, involving two PAN cards. Not only did he cheat women, he has also duped Rs 18 lakhs from medical aspirants to get them admitted in MBBS courses in medical colleges of other states. The police is also shocked to see his vulgar chats with around 60 educated, highly-placed ladies from different parts of country.
Police suspect he has amassed lot of property by cheating the women, which will be investigated.
Swain had opened up four IDs in shaadi.com under four names—Bindhuprakash, Ramaniranjan, Bijoyshree Ramesh Kumar and his own name Ramesh. In jeevansathi.com, he posed as deputy director general of health, Govt of India, with his age as 47, though he was born in 1956, seeking spouses.
Swain kept three flats in Bhubaneswar, where he accommodated out-of-station wives at different times. In one such occasion, one of his doctor wives from Delhi heard his philandering from his maidservant after which she reached Bhubaneswar women police station. Initially, the police did not take it seriously. But later, they found him to be a super conman and caught him from the Shani Temple of Bhubaneswar. Fair-complexioned Swain keeps up well despite his age, and, for many in police, it is a rarest of rare case where victims are women of very high standards. His Chhattisgarh victim was a Chartered Accountant. One of his victims was a high officer in the Indo-Tibetan Border police, another was a top official in the National Insurance Company, another was a lawyer in Delhi High Court, and there were five teachers.
