The second wife of a fake doctor in Odisha, who married as many as 18 times, has been arrested from Jharkhand for allegedly helping him in duping other women, police said here on Tuesday.
Ramesh Chandra Swain, the 66-year-old man from a coastal village in Odisha's Kendrapara district, had as many as 18 wives across seven states over 38 years and allegedly duped them of lakhs of rupees by posing as a doctor.
The second wife, a medical practitioner, was arrested on Monday for allegedly helping Swain in the fraud.
She is being brought to Odisha on Tuesday on a transit remand, a police officer said.
The woman was employed at Jamnagar in Gujarat and was absconding since Swain's arrest on February 23 this year.
Earlier, the police had arrested another woman who claimed to be Swain's sister, on the charge of helping him to get married multiple times and duping the women of money.
The police came to know about his second wife's involvement during Swain's interrogation, police said.
A father of five children, Swain had married his first wife in 1982 and second wife in 2002.
Between 2002 and 2020, he befriended other women through matrimonial websites and married them.
Police said he used to target middle-aged single women who sought companionship on matrimonial websites.
After getting married, he used to leave them after taking away their money.
According to police, Swain posed as a doctor posted as a deputy director general under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Complaints were not lodged due to the social standing of his wives as many of them were lawyers, doctors, and teachers, the police said.
A case had been registered against Swain at the Mahila police station here under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Swain's activities came to fore after a school teacher from Delhi, who was married to him, lodged a complaint at Mahila Police Station here in July 2021 alleging that the accused had married her in New Delhi in 2018 and kept her in Bhubaneswar.
She came to know about his multiple marriages and then sought the help of the law enforcers.
Immediately after the case was registered at the police station, Swain fled from the city and stayed with another wife in Assam.
The fake doctor was nabbed when he returned to his apartment in the city about six months later. PTI AAM MM MM
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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