| Associated
Press March 20, 2007 Singapore A SINGAPOREAN woman was sentenced to six months in jail for luring an Indian engineer in an Internet chatroom with pictures of a young actress, and taking nearly US$45,000 (€34,000) from him with promises of marriage, a report said Tuesday, March 20. Maliha Ramu, a 36-year-old ethnic Indian who is already married, was found guilty Monday by a Singapore court on two charges of cheating Bharani Indran of S$68,000 (US$45,000; €34,000), the Straits Times reported. It said she pleaded guilty. Ramu met Indran, a 32-year-old Indian software engineer based in the United States, on a Yahoo chatline in September 2004, the report said. She sent Indran pictures of an Indian movie actress, Gayatri Joshi, pretending the pictures were of her. Soon Ramu started asking Indran for money and between November 2004 and March 2005 he transferred US$45,000 to her account. But he later became suspicious and informed police. Ramu was arrested in August 2006. Ramu's lawyer, Rudy Marican, told the court his client was a charity worker who used the money to help needy people, the newspaper reported. The Straits Times said Ramu has returned more than S$58,000 (US$37,000; €29,000) to Indran. It quoted her Singaporean husband as saying he had no idea what his wife was up to until police came to their house to arrest her. "I was shocked that they could think that she was an offender. She has a kind heart and is always helping others," the husband, who declined to be identified, was quoted as saying. |
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