Man marries, cons 27 women across India

New Delhi – Bibhu Prakash Swain believed in soulmates and true love, or so he told around 27 women he allegedly married and conned across India before his arrest recently, weeks before his next two weddings.

When Swain emerged from the rented car, the squad was flummoxed. This was no Don Juan. He was a portly man barely 5 feet 2 inches tall, with a trimmed, bushy moustache.

A 66-year-old man was travelling in a car in Bhubaneswar when he suddenly found himself surrounded. A special squad of Odisha police had been tailing him for eight months, and this was their chance. They had done their homework, knew his vehicle, had tracked his online transactions.

Surrounded, Swain flashed a weak smile and surrendered. By the time the police team had finished interrogating him, they had confirmation that they had arrested one of Odisha’s biggest imposters, who had married at least 27 women in 10 states, defrauded 13 banks in Kerala of ₹1 crore through 128 forged credit cards in 2006, and cheated people in Hyderabad of ₹2 crore, promising seats in MBBS courses for their children.

However, according to AFP, he allegedly married and conned 18 women across India before his arrest.

Bibhu Prakash Swain marries 27 women across India

Arrested on the basis of a police complaint lodged by one of his wives in May 2021 under sections 498 (A), 419, 468, 471 and 494 of the Indian Penal Code, Swain was immediately remanded to judicial custody in Bhubaneswar.

“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,” said Sanjiv Satpathy, assistant commissioner of police, who led the team that arrested Swain.

From marrying 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 in the last three and a half years, Swain targeted his victims through matrimonial sites like Jeevansathi.com, Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com.

He posed as professor Bidhu Prakash Swain, a 51-year-old working as deputy director general of health education and training with an annual income of ₹50-70 lakh. “…presently posted South Central division as the chief controler of NEET UG and PG entrance examination and I search a porson how having good understanding to menten are good resource of family values,” he wrote about himself.