54 year old man married 14 women and fled with money, arrested

Bhubaneswar: Odisha based 54 year old man who allegedly married 14 women and fled with their money was arrested in Bhubaneshwar on Monday. He is said to to have defrauded crores of rupees. 

The Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police, Dr. Umashankar Dash said that the accused used to target women on matrimonial websites, marry them and then flee with their money. 

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The deputy commissioner said, "His only intention was to get money and acquire properties of the women after marrying them. He would reach out to women from states like Punjab, Jharkhand and Delhi through several matrimonial websites. The women he targeted, wanted emotional security as they either married late or were divorced and Swain took full advantage. Most of the victims are highly educated and hold key posts in various government and private sector organisations."

The accused is reported to be involved in such cheating cases since 2002, reports the Hindustan Times. The incident came to light after a complaint was filed against the accused by a school teacher from Delhi in July 2021, whom he had married at an Arya Samaj temple in 2018, after she got to know about his other marriages.

As per a media report in the News18, the complainant said, "We met on a matrimonial website. After our wedding, we stayed in Bhubaneswar. After a few days, he fled with the money and jewellery. Then I saw that he had posted a photo on the website, again looking for a partner. I then filed an FIR."

As per the complaint, the man was arrested by the police from a rented house in Khandagiri area of Bhubaneswar and he was booked under sections 498 (A) (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code. 

The police stated that they have recovered 11 ATM cards, 4 Aadhaar cards bearing different names and a Bihar school certificate with a different name during the search. The police added that the man, who is a father of five children, married for the first time in 1982, following which he married the second time in 2002. he allegedly used to take his victims to a different location in Bhubaneswar after marrying them. As per a media report in the Hindu, he had married a doctor who is presently servicing as Chief Medical Officer in a corporate house this time. 

He had married a woman official of ITBP in a gurdwara in Delhi in 2018 and then cheated her of Rs 10 lakh, then by posing as the director of the health and family welfare department, he cheated Rs 11 lakhs from the gurudwara officials on the pretext of securing the permission for running a hospital. 

During investigation, the man told the investigators that he had studied paramedical and laboratory technology in a Cochin-based institute and later did graduation in alternative system of medicine from Kolkata. 

The DCP told the Hindu, "Between 2002 and 2019, the con man went on to marry 12 more women mostly middle-aged and single who were seeking companionship. The only intention of the man was to cheat money from these working women. The moment women started suspecting him, he would flee the spot." 

One of the investigators Sanjiv Satpathy, said "The last woman he married to is living in Tezpur in Assam. The modus operandi is simple. He used to post his profile as a doctor seeking marriage in matrimonial site. The man was generating a number of fake documents in support of his identity. Sometime he would pose with red beacon on car to identify him as a very senior government officer." He added, "though he was born in 1956, he would always give 1971 as his year of birth. From his WhatsApp chats, we got to know that he was in touch with many more women."

During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the man was arrested in 2011 by a special task force in Hyderabad for allegedly duping several MBBS aspirants of Rs 2 crore. He had similarly cheated several job aspirants in different parts of the country by posing as deputy director general of central health education and training. The police added that he had also cheated the owner of a nursing home in Hyderabad on the pretext of arranging a medical seat to his son.

The Kerala police had arrested him in 2006 when he deceived 13 banks in Ernakulam, He had posed as a top-ranked officer in Health Ministry and availed loan of around Rs 1 crore. 

The deputy commissioner said, "We are planning to conduct a detailed financial investigation in the fraud. We will seek longer remand of the accused for a detailed probe. We know that many of Swain's victims would not come forward to lodge a complaint due to loss of social prestige, but we urge all of them to speak up."

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