Lady jailed for cheating through internet marriage

Singapore, Mar 20: A Singapore lady of Indian origin was jailed for six months for cheating an Indian software engineer through a proposed internet marriage, enticing him by using fake pictures.

Maliha Ramu, 36, who is already married, allegedly used pictures of actress Gayatri Joshi to lure 32-year old Bharani Indran, working in the United States, over the Yahoo Internet chatline since September 2004, which eventually resulted in a relationship, based on which she borrowed 68,000 Singapore dollars from him.

Calling herself Sanjana Parekh on the internet, Maliha began borrowing money from Mr Bharani, starting with 19,175 US dollars in November 2004. On January 29, 2005, she lied, saying her mother has died and she needed 25,000 US dollars for funeral expenses.

Although her mother had died three years earlier, Maliha used it as an excuse to call off her planned registering of civil marriage with Mr Bharani.

As Mr Bharani obliged, she further borrowed 15,400 US dollars and 10,000 US dollars in February and March 2005.

Mr Bharani suspected when Maliha made another call for 10,000 US dollars. He made a police report in May 2005, resulting in her arrest last August, which shocked her 41-year old husband.

Yesterday, Maliha pleaded with District Judge Ms Amy Tung for leniency, and not to have the case reported in the local newspapers as it would affect her family members. Maliha has since returned 36,000 US dollars to Mr Bharani. But the Judge, saying she had no powers to stop the media from reporting the case, jailed her for six months on two charges, which carried a maximum jail term of seven years and fines.

Maliha's husband was not convinced, recalling her good deeds, which included paying for sending the body of a maid, who had committed suicide, to India. Her husband declining to be named, said his wife was just too helpful but became a victim of a case involving another woman.

UNI