A court convicted Balesh Dhankhar, a man of Indian origin and former Australian community leader, to serve 40 years behind bars for a string of methodically plotted sexual crimes. Authorities convicted Dhankhar of luring and raping numerous women under the pretext of fake job interviews, describing it as one of the most staggering cases in Australian legal history. The 43-year-old, formerly a leading figure in the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) organization in Australia, was convicted in 2023 on 39 charges, including 13 counts of rape.
District Court Judge Michael King, in handing down the verdict, labeled Dhankhar’s offenses as “premeditated, meticulously planned, manipulative, and highly predatory.” The judge went on to highlight that Dhankhar had set out to satisfy his sexual desires with complete disregard for his victims’ welfare. A Pattern of Predatory Behavior Dhankhar’s modus operandi was to post false job ads for young women looking for work.
Most of his victims were Korean nationals who had traveled to Australia for work or study. The authorities disclosed that he would take the women to luxury hotels or his Sydney CBD apartment for the purpose of interviewing them, where he would drug and sexually assault them. Investigators learned that he documented the attacks on videotape using secret cameras, a hidden video camera disguised in a clock radio being one example.
He kept a spreadsheet to grade job candidates based on looks, intelligence, and vulnerabili.
