Indian Tinder Swindler: Man scams 27 women, marries them for money

A man in India has been arrested after he married 27 women and scammed them for their money. The man named Bibhu Prakash Swain was arrested by the Odisha police on February 13. The man married 27 women in 10 different states.

He was arrested after one of his wives lodged a complaint under under sections 498 (A), 419, 468, 471 and 494 of the Indian Penal Code.

“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.

He targeted his victims through matrimonial sites like Jeevansathi.com, Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com. As per his mother, he had first married a girl from a nearby village in 1979 and the couple had two sons and a daughter.

His victims include, “An assistant commandant of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, 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 Indorean officer of the Kerala Administrative Service.”

“Though he looked more than 60 in real life, his victims ignored it while considering his government job. Swain took full advantage of the women’s helplessness and laid elaborate traps,” said Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Umashankar Dash. “Though we are yet to know how much money he made out of the victims, initial assessments say he collected ₹2-10 lakh from his victims. His motive was marry for money.”

“I did not suspect a thing. He came to my home twice with one of his assistants. As I had spent a considerable time in Odisha before moving to Bhilai and then Delhi, I thought Odia men were innocent and could never cheat anyone. In July 2018, we got married in an Arya Samaj temple. But he never took me to Odisha till December 2018, when he brought me to an apartment in Bhubaneswar. However, five days later, he said he is leaving for Bangalore on official work and I returned to Delhi. I started getting suspicious when he would suddenly leave me at short notice and disappear for months together,” said one of the women who lodged the FIR.

“There were no male members in my family as I had lost my father and brother a few years ago. There was no way to verify his age and we were taken in by the fake identity card. He wanted to rush through the marriage and said it would be held in Jagannath temple in Puri, but midway he took me to Maa Sarala temple in Jagatsinghpur district, saying the temple was closed due to Covid restrictions. It was only after he brought me to an apartment in Bhubaneswar several months later that I had my first doubts. A maidservant who worked in his house told me about his past and I left. However, I could not bring back the gold jewellery worth ₹2 lakh, which I had taken with me,” said another victim.