New Delhi/Sydney: An Indian, based in Australia, has been sentenced to 40-years in prison by a district court of Sydney, for sexual offences committed against five women. Thirty of these will be without parole. Balesh Dhankhar was arrested in 2018.
Dhankhar is said to be the founder of the ‘Overseas Friends of BJP’ and a purported image shows him standing next to a ‘standee’ with the BJP logo and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photograph on it. He is also seen sporting a ‘BJP’ scarf in that visual.
His trial continued till 2023, after which the jury found him guilty of 39 offences, including 13 counts of sexual assault. On Friday, the Australia Today News reported that district court judge Michael King called his actions premeditated, elaborately executed, manipulative and highly predatory in nature, before sentencing him.
“This was an egregious sequence of planned predatory conduct against five unrelated young and vulnerable women over a significant period,” the judge noted. Unless the order is overturned by a higher court, Dhankhar stands to spend time behind the bars till 2053, without parole. He would be eligible for parole for the next ten years.
According to the prosecution, Dhankhar, an IT consultant, lured the women with fake job advertisements and then drugged them in and around his house in Sydney. He then sexually assaulted them and even filmed the acts for his later use.
Dhankhar did not agree with the order though and claimed that he did not drug the women. He also said that his concept of consensual sex differs from the legal definition.
Dhankhar is well known among the Indian-origin community in Australia. After reaching Australia as a student in 2006, he presented himself as a ‘community-minded person, dedicated to improving the lives of others. He went on to become the spokesperson of the Hindu Council of Australia.
