The Odisha conman accused of duping women across the country by luring them into fraudulent marriages is giving interrogators a tough time. After Ramesh Chandra Swain’s five days of police remand came to end on Thursday, the City Police pleaded for another seven days of remand to confront victims with the trickster, whose frauds ranged from marriages to financial cheating and quackery to shady real estate deals. Swain, who hails from Singhalo village in Kendrapara district, went by the aliases of Dr. Bijayshree Ramesh Kumar, Dr. Bidhu Prakash Swain, and Dr. Ramani Ranjan Swain.
“The man is not revealing anything. When we confront him with the victims of his frauds, only then he is reluctantly admitting to some of the crimes. Now, not many women are showing interest in nailing him through formal registration of case. Victims are probably afraid of losing social respect,” said Umashankar Dash, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bhubaneswar.
“A dedicated group of officers need to carry on sustained interrogation to unravel his crimes,” Mr. Dash said.
The conman assumed many identities and operated in different States. Police of other States may have recorded his crime with a misspelt name, which has made it difficult to find his past records from the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS).
From the first round of questioning, City Police came to know that Swain was running a racket that includes his some of his family members, who are also con artists. His step-sister, Rasmita Beura, has been arrested, while brother-in-law Ganesh Beura, is absconding. The driver of his car was also a regular member of his marriage party. Over video conferencing, victims identified his sister as being present at weddings.
According to investigators, his second wife, a doctor with a fertilizer cooperative, is believed to be a part of financial frauds. She has switched off her mobile phones for the past few days.
“A doctor from Assam lodged a formal complaint with the City Police, alleging that after marriage, Swain swindled money running into lakhs [of rupees] by stealing her debit card. He also siphoned off ₹12 lakh from her cousin brother on the pretext of ensuring an MBBS seat for his son,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Sanjeev Satpathy, a key member of the interrogation team.
In 2019, Swain, with the fake identity of of deputy director general in the Union Health Ministry, executed a bond with an Ernakulam-based woman Lieutenant Colonel and defrauded her of ₹23 lakh. He had promised to arrange a medical seat for her daughter.
“Apart from fraudulent marriages, he appeared to have mastered the art of deceiving people with the false promise of arranging an MBBS seat for their wards in prestigious medical colleges,” Mr. Satpathy said. Swain had collected ₹18 lakh and ₹15 lakh separately from two persons in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district by promising them seats in medical colleges. In 2010, the Hyderabad Police had to form a special task force to arrest Swain for his “MBBS seat” frauds.
“When victims are brought to confront Swain during interrogation, he first pleads innocence. He told interrogators that whatever money he borrowed from the victims had been returned,” the ACP said.
“We want people to know about him and come forward with complaints about frauds he had committed on them. He is a habitual offender. We are sure that he would lay traps for another round of fraud once he comes out of jail. He is not cooperating in the investigation. The man has been maintaining that he has been married to only four women and the rest have come to live with him,” Mr. Satpathy said.
The police came across four acres of land purchased in the name of his second wife, although it turned out to be a much larger parcel of land. It appears that Swain encroached upon a vast patch of government land.
With news of his frauds unravelling, victims have started approaching the City Police. Entrepreneurs from West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have informed the Bhubaneswar City Police about frauds committed on them.
As of now, Bhubaneswar police are investigating cases on the basis of four formal complaints regarding fraudulent marriages and six other cases of financial frauds.
Before his luck ran out and he was caught by the police earlier this month, the 66-year-old conman had collected ₹2 lakh from a bride’s family to purchase a sherwani (outer coat for bridegroom) for the marriage that would have taken place in Jajpur district in March.
