Odisha woman held for helping brother marry 18 women for monetary gains
By Sushanta Mohanty
Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: The Odisha police on Tuesday took a woman into custody for helping his brother to marry multiple rich women with a mischievous intention to extract money from them. The woman identified as Rashmita Behera of Ishwarpur in Kendrapara district, according to police, helped his brother Ramesh Chandra Swain alias Bibhu Prasad to marry as many as 18 women.
The 65-year Ramesh who failed to clear the matriculation or Class X examinations always introduced himself to the victims of his nefarious design as a joint secretary in the Union government’s health ministry. His victims, among others, included a Jharkhand based doctor, a chartered account, a New Delhi based English medium school principal, an Andhra Pradesh based businesswoman and some government employees.
According to police, after every marriage, Ramesh used to share the extracted money with his sister and other members of his family.
“A special team of the police raided a house at Ishwarpur today and later brought his sister Rashmita Beura to Bhubaneswar for interrogation. We will question her regarding her involvement in the fraudulent activities committed by her brother,” a police officer in Bhubaneswar said.
A fresh case has been lodged against the imposter. As per the complaint, he has defrauded a businesswoman of Rs 4 lakh in Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier on February 14, the police had arrested Ramesh from a rented house in Khandagiri area here for allegedly duping 18 women of lakhs of rupees after marrying them impersonating himself as a doctor. The arrest was made based on a complaint lodged by a Delhi-based woman schoolteacher in July, 2021.
A case has been registered against him at the Mahila police station in Bhubanswar under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code.
A father of five children, Ramesh had married his first wife in 1982 and second in 2002. Between 2002 and 2020, he befriended other women through matrimonial websites and married them. He used to target middle-aged women who sought companionship. He would abandon them after acquiring their money.
