Indian-Origin Man Found Guilty Of Drugging And Raping Five Korean Women In Australia

A prominent Indian-origin man of the Indian community in Australia has been found guilty of raping five Korean women by a district court jury in Sydney on Monday. The accused, Balesh Dhankhar, a data expert, has been deemed "one of the worst rapists" in the city’s recent history.

The Sydney district court found the "politically connected predator" Dhankhar lured five Korean women into a web of lies, paralysed them with drugs, and raped them. He also recorded the sexual assault using a camera hidden in his bedside alarm and on his phone.

According to reports by The Sydney Morning Herald, Dhankar was the former chief of the Overseas Friends of the BJP in Australia.

Indian-Origin Man Guilty Of Rape

Dhankar has been refused bail after the jury deemed him guilty of 39 charges against him. The 43-year-old predator will face the court in May, after which he’ll be sentenced later in the year. Dhankar’s wife was seen supporting him during the court hearing. She was seen in tears.

He broke down while explaining to the court that he lied to the women because he was lonely after an extramarital affair ended. He blamed his loneliness on the "unfulfilling" intimacy in his marriage.

In 2018, when the police raided Dhankhar’s apartment, they found dozens of videos of him having sex with various women. Some women were unconscious, while others struggled and groaned like they were experiencing a nightmare. Investigations revealed that Dhankar used to capture his sexual assaults and watch them later.

The videos were sorted into folders and labelled with the names of each Korean woman. One of the videos was 95 minutes long, and a montage showed an unconscious woman being subjected to sex by Dhankar.

The videos were too bothersome to even be described in detail. The jury writhed while watching the videos. Reportedly, at one point it became too overwhelming, and they asked to be sent home early.

In 2017, Dhankar began targeting women with a fake job ad for Korean translators. He recorded conversations with women who were alone, new to the city, and desperately looking for a job. During cross-examinations, he admitted that there was no company and that it was an attempt to "manipulate women."

Dhankar used to interview these women at the Hilton hotel café, then pressurise them to accompany him to dinner, soju, and wine. Then he would make an excuse to go to his apartment at World Square Tower. He would promise them a view of the Opera House or claim that he needed his car keys.

He would give them wine or ice cream mixed with sedatives. Traces of the drug were found in two of the women’s blood and hair. Apparently, he had told the doctors that he needed the drugs to rest so that he could "devote time to family."

He even had a spreadsheet of his victims where he listed down his thoughts about the women—whether he found them attractive, whether they were sexually active, how they reacted to being drugged and assaulted, etc.

Dhankar’s wife and family were not living in Australia at the time of the crime. Dhankar had to sell his family's assets and properties to fund his legal defence. He was assigned a rising-star barrister.

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