BHUBANESWAR: The Enforcement Directorate has registered a case against Ramesh Swain, considered one of Odisha’s biggest imposters who was arrested by the state police last year on charges that he married 27 women in 10 states and cheated them of lakhs of rupees.
Swain, also known as Bibhu Prakash Swain, was arrested in 2011 on charges of cheating people in Hyderabad of ₹2 crore, promising seats in MBBS courses for their children, and in 2006 for allegedly defrauding 13 banks in Kerala of ₹1 crore through 128 forged credit cards.
In the Odisha case, police also arrested one of Swain’s wives, Dr Kamala Sethi, his stepsister and driver. All of them have been granted bail by Orissa high court.
An ED official said the agency is in touch with the state police to access the documents seized from the suspect that would indicate how the 66-year-old laundered the proceeds of crime over the years.
The official added that Swain’s financial transactions will be investigated and that the agency may seek his remand for questioning at some point.
Swain was arrested on February 13 by a special squad of Odisha police that had been tracking him for eight months. He was arrested based on a complaint filed by one of his wives, a Delhi-based woman, in May 2021. She met him through a matrimony site in 2018 and got married. He had claimed to be the deputy director general in the health ministry.
{{/usCountry}}Swain was arrested on February 13 by a special squad of Odisha police that had been tracking him for eight months. He was arrested based on a complaint filed by one of his wives, a Delhi-based woman, in May 2021. She met him through a matrimony site in 2018 and got married. He had claimed to be the deputy director general in the health ministry.
{{/usCountry}}Swain is said to have rented at least three apartments in Bhubaneswar, where he would keep three wives at the same time, according to a police officer who has questioned him. His wives told the police that he would often tell his wives to lend him money and once he got the money, the search for the next wife would begin.
Among the women that he ‘married’ were an assistant commandant of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, a chartered accountant from Chhatisgarh, a doctor in Assam, two advocates of the Supreme Court and the Delhi high court and an officer of the Kerala Administrative Service.
“He would slink away for days together, saying he had an urgent inspection of medical colleges. After marriage, he would often tell his wives to lend him money, pleading that government has frozen his bank account for some reason. Once he got the money, he would look for another wife,” the officer said, requesting anonymity.