Balesh Dhankhar, a politically connected man who led the Overseas Friends of the BJP in Sydney, was found guilty of raping five women in Sydney’s Downing Centre by a District Court jury.
Dhankhar manipulated the women by posting a fake job advertisement for Korean translators, then recorded conversations with them before inviting them to dinner, where he drugged them with wine and ice-cream laced with sedatives. He took trophies of his assaults, and the NSW police found dozens of videos of him having sex with women, some of whom were unconscious or groaning in their sleep. The jury was shown traumatic recordings of the attacks. The contents of the videos were so distressing that the jury asked to be sent home early. Judge Michael King appeared sympathetic.
