Balesh Dhankhar, a prominent member of Australia’s Indian community, was found guilty of raping five Korean women in Sydney after drugging them, according to a media report on Monday.
The reports allegedly described him as ‘one of the worst rapists’ in Sydney’s recent history.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a District Court jury in Sydney’s Downing Centre identified the “politically connected predator” lured five Korean women into a web of lies, paralysed them with drugs, and sexually assaulted them.
As per the report, the accused, Balesh Dhankhar, was the former leader of the ‘Overseas Friends of the BJP in Australia.
Web of lies:
According to The Sidney Morning Herald, Dhankhar has become increasingly obsessed with Korean film, language, and women. In 2017, he created a fake job ad for Korean translators.
He taped discussions with unemployed women looking for jobs and new to Sydney. He interviewed women at Hilton hotel cafe and used to offer them dinner.
The women explained to the judge that they were being polite. Later he would negotiate an excuse to go up to his World Square Tower flat. He would occasionally offer them a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House or pretend he needed his vehicle keys.
Dhankhar provided the women with sedative-laced wine or ice cream; traces were detected in the blood and hair of two victims. He informed doctors that he required the medicines to sleep so that he could “devote time to family.” His wife and family were not in Australia at the time.
Recordings:
In October 2018, police raided Dhankhar’s CBD flat and found dozens of tapes of him having sex with women. Dhankhar filmed his sexual assaults on his phone with a camera hidden in his bedroom alarm clock.
He sorted the videos into several folders and named them after Korean women’s names. The detectives then discovered a string of bookmarks on Dhankhar’s browser.
The contents of the videos are too sensitive to go into detail. As they saw the recordings, the members of the jury writhed. According to the report, it became too much at one point for them, and they requested to be sent home early.
He found it difficult to explain a precise phone list of persons who replied to his online ad.
A spreadsheet on his computer also listed victims, an attractive score, sexual experience, and their reactions to being drugged and abused.
Dhankhar said he stored the films to avoid guests from accidentally discovering them. Prosecutors called his argument one of his most outrageous lies.
Dhankhar’s wife backed him up in court, while he blamed his loneliness on their marriage’s “unfulfilling” intimacy.
Dhankhar cried as the jury foreman declared “guilty” to each of the 39 charges levelled against him on Monday. He requested to be released on bond, but Judge King refused. He will return to court in May and will be punished later that year.
(With inputs from The Sydney Morning Herald reports)
Balesh Dhankhar found guilty:
Balesh Dhankar a Hindu Ex President of Overseas Friend of BJP Australia drugged and raped 5 Korean women ! He recorded the sexual acts and the videos were sorted into folders, each labelled with a Korean woman’s name. The jury writhed as they watched the videos. At one stage it… https://t.co/XjfAXihPLm
— Dr. Extra2ab Ø (@SaffronSalim) April 24, 2023
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