Indian woman poses as man, marries 2 women for dowry

An Indian woman has been arrested after allegedly masquerading as a man to marry two women and obtain a dowry.

Krishna Sen, 26, is believed to have posed as a man since 2014 when she wed her first wife, using Facebook to snare her brides.

They reportedly separated soon after the wedding, then Sen married another woman in April 2017, Daily Mail reports. 

Her former in-laws told police that she had been harassing their daughter for a dowry and borrowed more than £9,000 from them to start a business, but didn't repay it.

Sen reportedly spoke in a deep voice, smoked, drank alcohol and rode a motorcycle with her male friends to maintain the ruse.

Police told the BBC said she had never undressed in front of her two wives or been sexually intimate with them.

But The Times of India report that she she confessed to using sex toys to make love to her brides in complete darkness.

Sen, formerly known as Sweety, was arrested on Wednesday in the northern state of Uttarakhand for demanding dowry, which is illegal in India.

Police said that Sen's deception was uncovered during questioning and she told them she had always wanted to live a 'man's life'.

It is not clear whether her parents were aware of what she had been doing. 

'At first we failed to understand what Krishna was saying,' senior police officer Janamejay Khanduri told the BBC.

'We conducted a medical examination and found that Krishna is female.'

Another police officer added: 'With male hairstyle, dress and behaviour, Krishna used to live a male life. Nobody ever doubted Krishna'.

She even walked like a 'confident man', he explained.

Paying and accepting dowry is a long-standing tradition in South Asia where the bride's parents gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom's family. 

Though illegal in India since 1961, the practice is commonplace.