Indian man arrested for duping Maltese woman

A man from Delhi has been arrested for allegedly duping a Maltese woman of $56,000 and raping her, the media in India has reported.

Devender Ram Ratwana, 29, who works as a data engineer, has been booked for forgery as well as cheating and raping the 35-year old Maltese woman.

Mr Ratwana met the woman, a divorcee, in an internet chat room four years ago. They soon began to chat regularly, exchanging pictures, and the engineer offered to marry her, the Financial Express reported. The case is being reported prominently in the Indian media.

"She offered to come to India to meet Mr Ratwana's family; instead, the latter said he wanted to visit Malta first as he wanted to get treated for some particular ailment," the investigating officer was reported as saying.

The victim arranged for Mr Ratwana's visa and sent him $14,400 through an online bank transfer. The engineer flew to Malta in March 2002, stayed here for a month and returned to India promising to marry her. On learning that the woman was pregnant, Mr Ratwana suggested an abortion saying he needed some time to consider marriage and some money.

"The victim, still trusting Mr Ratwana, sent him more money as he told her that he wanted to open a gymnasium to support his family. The final count of money sent by the victim stood at $56,052," the officer said.

Mr Ratwana then changed his telephone numbers and switched to another e-mail ID. After repeatedly failing to reach the engineer and on learning that the gym papers he had sent her were fake, the Maltese woman faxed a complaint to Delhi police in 2003. Last year, however, Mr Ratwana broke all his connections with the woman.

A cheating and forgery case was registered last year; rape charges were added later.

Mr Ratwana has been arrested after a year-long inquiry during which the Maltese woman even flew to India and got her statement recorded.

The police got vital clues from the immigration records at Delhi airport which supported her claim that the accused had visited her.