Con man married 18 times, defrauded banks caught
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New Delhi: A 67-year-old man of Odisha was arrested for posing as a 51-year-old doctor and marrying 18 women and conning them, Agence France-Presse reported.
According to police, the man, identified as, Bibhu Prakash Swain, has cheated professors, lawyers, medics and a paramilitary officer across the country by marrying them. Police said he lied to his victims that he had a heavy salary and used fake IDs and appointment letters to shape impressive credentials and family background. His primary aim was money and sexual pleasure, police said.
Police further said that the man was persuasive and only targeted single successful women or widowed, divorced women- all in their late 40s. He stored all the women's contact as Madam Delhi, Madam Assam, Madam UP etc., according to their native places.
The police were tracking the man for months and found his multiple identities, bank accounts and his intention to marry two more.
After each marriage, he borrows money or jewellery, saying he has some emergency, leaves the woman and look for fresh targets. He trusted his belief that single, widowed or divorced women married in a conservative society pose him no challenge by approaching police.
Police started chasing the man after a 48-year-old woman filed a complaint after realising that the man had married more than seven times. She had contacted other women he cheated with after finding their contacts in his phone.
The man first married in 1978 and has three children in that marriage. He was a lab technician, left his family and moved to Bhubaneshwar. He married a doctor there in 2002, his second marriage.
Police doubt that he is alone in this after his well-furnished plans, and he moves his money from one place to another. He also had defrauded 13 banks to the tune of Rs 1 core, police said. He ran a chain of medical labs and left doctors other staff there without months of payment.