Big Tank
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2013
- Messages
- 3,333
- Reaction score
- 5
- Country
- Location
PHOTO: Sweety Sen (centre) married a second woman in 2016, renting rooms for both wives. (Supplied: Hindustan Times)RELATED STORY: Extortion, blackmail and violence: Kasish's story of dowry abuse
MAP: IndiaVIDEO: Woman posed as man and married twice (ABC News)
Police say Ms Sen developed a taste for the finer things in life after accruing dowry payments from her new wives.
They found luxury items including wine, expensive furniture and pedigree dogs in her home, as well as five smartphones.
Both women she married were from the same town in northern India.
The second wife found out her husband was actually a woman, but Ms Sen paid her to stay silent.
Police say Ms Sen never allowed the women to see her body, and used sex toys to maintain the illusion she was a man.
PHOTO: Police say they are now unsure whether Sen can be charged with dowry abuse as she is not really a man. (Supplied)The first wife eventually went to police to accuse her husband of beating her up and demanding more dowry money.
Police say Ms Sen had the numbers of more than 200 women in her phones, and was actively conversing with women across the country on a range of social media platforms.
The practice of dowry — common in India and among Indian communities overseas — involves a bride's family giving money or goods to a husband after they marry.
"Dowry abuse" is a growing problem, where the husband or his family demand an increasing amount of payments or goods be proffered as a new marriage continues.
PHOTO: The first wife eventually went to police to accuse her husband of beating her up. (Facebook)Police told a local news agency the alleged offender's gender came as a surprise.
"We had no clue that Sen was a woman. During questioning, Sen said she was a woman," police officer B. L. Vishwakarma said.
Police said they were now unsure whether Ms Sen could be charged with dowry abuse or domestic violence, saying that because she was not really a man, the marriages were not legal.
The story has parallels with a famous early 20th century case from Australia, where a Sydney woman posed for two decades as a man.
Eugenia Falleni married twice, and was eventually charged with murdering her first wife.
