Indian man arrested for marrying, defrauding 27 women

Bibhu Prakash Swain, a 66-year-old Indian man was arrested recently as the Odisha police successfully caught him after months of investigation. Odisha’s biggest imposter, Swain has reportedly married at least 27 women in ten states across the country, defrauded 13 banks through 128 forged credit cards and cheated people by promising false seats in MBBS courses.

The search for this scamster began after one of his wives lodged a complaint in May 2021. He was immediately remanded to judicial custody in Bhubaneswar. Upon the merit of the mastermind behind an elaborate far-stretched con scheme, Sanjiv Satpathy, assistant commissioner of police, said, “We are not even sure if he has passed the matriculation exam. But we knew that he had preyed on unsuspecting women looking for security and love.”

Swain chose his victims through matrimonial sites. To date, he had married 27 women but according to police reports, his phone history tells that he was in talks with around 70-75 more women, hoping to tie the knot with them in the coming years.

Posing as professor Bidhu Prakash Swain, his matrimonial profile viewed him as a 51-year-old working as deputy director-general of health education and training with an annual income of INR 5-7million. The women Swain targeted were often above the ages of 40, struggling to deal with societal pressure, were divorced, or had issues within the family.

In the last three and a half years, Swain had destroyed the lives of many well-educated women - ranging from an assistant commandant of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police to a chartered accountant from Chhatisgarh, teachers of a New Delhi-based school, a doctor in Tezpur in Assam, two advocates of the Supreme Court and the Delhi high court, a government employee from Indore to an officer of the Kerala Administrative Service.

Police reports also stated that the contacts of several women were found saved as “wife one”, “wife doctor”, “wife Bhilai”, “wife teacher”, “wife Guwahati”, “wife Bangalore”, “to be wife Dhenkanal” and “to be wife Jagatsinghpur” in his phone. “His motive was to marry for money,” said deputy commissioner of police, Umashankar Dash.

Upon interrogating his many wives, it was revealed that not only did he take dowry during or before the marriage but also manipulate them into giving him money while he disappeared on his frequent “hospital inspections.”

“After marriage, he would call up his wives, saying he is stuck at an airport as his ticket has been cancelled or he needed money for a sudden illness. He would take money, promising to return it the next day, which of course he never did,” said a police officer. Swain would make money from his wives either by taking gold jewellery or cash from them.

But alas, it wasn't just his wives that he conned. Swain ran several other scams from diagnostic centres to an alleged organ trafficking business. However, the police believe that it isn’t a “one-man play.”

It was surely not a one-man show and he parked his loot with his wife and different people over the years. From his chat transcripts and other evidence, we have found out that he was in touch with 70-75 other women whom he could have married over the next few years,” said a senior police officer.

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