Indian-origin man linked to BJP sentenced 40-year jail for raping 5 South Korean women in Australia
Sydney: An Australian court has sentenced an Indian community leader to forty years in prison after being found guilty of “elaborately executed, manipulative and highly predatory” rapes of five Korean women.
According to media reports, Balesh Dhankhar posted fake job advertisements to lure women in their 20s before drugging them in or near his home in Sydney. The former IT consultant then groped and raped the women. He further filmed his crimes for his future sexual gratification.
He also maintained a spreadsheet ranking applicants of his fake job postings based on appearance, intelligence, and perceived vulnerability.
Dhankhar is the founder of the Australian wing of the Overseas Friends of BJP, an official support group of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the country. He was convicted of 39 offences, including 13 counts of rape, six of administering an intoxicating substance, 17 of recording intimate videos without consent and three of indecent assault.
District Court Judge Michael King sharply condemned Dhankhar's actions, describing them as "premeditated, elaborately executed, manipulative, and highly predatory."
Meanwhile, Dhankhar has denied drugging the women or that the encounters were non-consensual. He told a report writer that there was a "difference in how I interpret consent, to how the law sees consent".
Dhankhar, who arrived in Australia as a student in 2006, was a popular figure in the Indian-Australian community and served as a spokesperson for the Hindu Council of Australia.
Dhankar’s non-parole period expires in April 2053. He will be 83 years old when his full sentence ends.
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Missing Kerala class 10 student found dead near Chandradrona hills
Chikkamagaluru (Karnataka) (PTI): Three days after a class 10 student from Kerala went missing during a family trip to Manikyadhara Falls in the Chandradrona hill range, she was found dead on Friday, police said.
The deceased, identified as Kumari Shrinanda, had been missing since Tuesday evening after she went trekking in the Chandradrona hills, they said.
"The body has been traced, and the clothes she was wearing are intact. The body will be sent for a post-mortem, and further procedures are underway," Chikkamagaluru Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Dayama told PTI.
The girl was part of a group of around 40 relatives who had travelled from Palakkad, police added.
According to police, she went missing at around 5.30 pm on Tuesday while at the falls with her family. The family searched for her until about 8 pm before informing the authorities.
After receiving the report, police and forest department personnel launched a search operation in the area. Thermal drones were deployed to locate the girl.
Disaster management teams also joined the operation.
In a separate incident in Kodagu district recently, a 36-year-old woman from Kerala went missing while trekking in the Tadiandamol hills and was later traced and reunited with her family.
