All about Ramesh Swain, the Odisha man who married 27 women by fraud

A 66-year-old man was recently arrested in Odisha for marrying at least 27 women by fraud, on the claim that he was an official of the government’s health ministry over the last several years.

Ramesh Chandra Swain managed to convince the women he married — most of whom were single or widows — that he was the deputy director general of health education and training at the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and tied the knot with them without raising suspicion about his past.

Swain, who is educated till class 10 only, also swindled lakhs of money from these women, and left them when his lid was blown.

Among the women he married were a Supreme Court lawyer, an officer of the Kerala Administrative Service, a Chartered Accountant, an officer of ITBP, a senior executive from an insurance company, and doctors.

The police have come into contact with at least 90 women tricked by Swain, although not all are willing to be part of the investigation, for fear of stigma from the society.

The arrest

Swain, who is from Singhalo village in Kendrapara district in Odisha, used other names such as Dr Bijayshree Ramesh Kumar, Dr Bidhu Prakash Swain and Dr Ramani Ranjan Swain to convince his victims.

Swain had first married in 1982, and had two sons and a daughter from that marriage. What is believed to be his second marriage was to a doctor in Jharkhand. She came to know of his fraud but kept silent.

It appears that the first complaint against Swain by one of his wives was made in May 2021 by a 48-year-old New Delhi-based school teacher, who lodged a complaint with the Commissionerate Police for Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in Odisha in May 2021. She said her husband had married multiple times and cheated her of ₹13 lakh.

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The police, using Swain’s phone number, found out that he had several addresses. And at every residence, they found that he had a wife.

Swain, who used to keep travelling frequently, would visit Paradip occasionally, police found by tracking his phone.

The police caught him when he visited the Shani temple in Bhubaneswar on February 14.

Way to wedding

The 5-ft-2-inch-tall Swain would upload his profile on a matrimony website, using which he would come in contact with his potential brides.

When he met up with the bride or her family, he would convince them that he was the deputy director general of health education and training at the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

He would show documents such as PAN, Aadhaar, to show he was born in 1971, although he was actually born in 1958.

He would also show a “rejected leave application” from his office, saying he was quite important to the organisation and he would not be given leave. This argument helped him to stay away from his wife for long periods of time.

Swain could speak Hindi and English fluently, and would post photos with vehicles having red beacon.

Shocking revelations 

The Delhi teacher, who married Swain in an Arya Samaj temple in Delhi on July 29, 2018, came to know from one of her maids during her visit to Bhubaneswar that he already had two wives.

“When I confronted him, he started avoiding me. Since I had no guardian and was staying alone, I could not carry out a background check. The email IDs looked genuine, like those of government officials. I had spent my childhood in Odisha. I had an idea that Odia men would never cheat,” she woman said, according to a report in The Hindu.

She then contacted the other women Swain had married using his phone, and kept in touch with them. They also alerted other women who would contact him after seeing his profile on matrimonial websites.

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The police found that he married at least 25 times after the 2018 marriage to the New Delhi teacher and most of his victims were lonely, unmarried and middle-aged women.

One of his wives was a Kerala Administrative Service officer who after being convinced by Swain travelled to Guwahati by road with her family for registering the marriage.

Another was a doctor in Guwahati whom he had married and stayed with for a few months. There were five women in Odisha, of which three were teachers, one of whom was a widow with a grown up daughter.

Yet another one was a Supreme Court lawyer, who has now moved a petition in a lower court for nullifying her marriage.

Another of Swain’s wives was an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officer, whom he cheated of ₹10 lakh.

A police officer investigating the case said because of social stigma, many women are not coming forward to lodge a formal complaint.

Police also said that Swain had apparently threatened the women with publishing intimate videos of them, but they are yet to get anything from his phone.

He is also accused of taking bribe on the promise of getting admission in medical colleges. He was charged and arrested in a ₹1 crore forgery case in Kerala in 2006. Another fraud case was registered against him in Hyderabad.