Indian man marries 27 women across 10 states to con them out of money

An Indian man, 66-year-old Bibhu Prakash Swain, believed to be "Odisha's biggest imposters", was arrested by the Odisha police on February 13. He was found to have married at least 27 women in 10 states across India, all to con the unsuspecting women out of their money.

According to the Hindustan Times, Swain was tailed by the police for eight months prior to his arrest. In addition to the marriages, he was also reportedly guilty of defrauding 13 banks out of INR10 million through forged credit cards, as well as cheating individuals in Hyderabad out of INR20 million by making false promises of securing MBBS courses seats for their children.

The 66-year-old didn't look like the fearsome conman the police had thought him to be prior to his arrest. He was a short and port-bellied man. “He did not seem anything from what we had imagined him to be. 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,” the assistant commissioner of police told the publication.

Swain targeted women through matrimonial sites like Jeevansathi.com, Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com, posing as a government official, professor or doctor amongst other socially respected professions. He approached women above 40 who were divorced, struggling with family issues or looking to escape societal pressures through marriage.

Bhubaneswar's deputy commissioner of police told the publication that Swain took "full advantage of the women’s helplessness and laid elaborate trap". “Though we are yet to know how much money he made out of the victims, initial assessments say he collected INR10,000 to INR200,00 from his victims. His motive was marry for money.”

During the wedding or after, the conman would make money through the women he married either by taking their gold jewellery or cash. Families would sometimes take loans to give their new son-in-law the money he expected through marriage.

Police found contacts of his several wives on his phone, saved in his contacts list as “wife one”, “wife doctor” or “wife teacher”. He married women from well-to-do backgrounds who had sound careers. He married a police officer, a chartered accountant, teachers and even lawyers.

His stepmother and brother from his native village said they were unaware of the massive con he'd been running. His mother shared that Swain had first married a girl from a nearby village in 1979 and the couple had two sons and a daughter. However, the marriage broke down and Swain remarried a doctor from another town. His brother shared that Swain, who'd worked as a laboratory assistant to a doctor for some time, started posing as a doctor to treat people in the village and nearby areas. In 1990 he left the village to work in various other districts.

Swain was arrested after one of his wives lodged a complaint with the police. He was remanded into judicial custody in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.