Indian community leader Balesh Dhankhar sentenced to 40 years in sexual harassment case in Australia

NEW DELHI: Indian community leader Balesh Dhankhar was sentenced to 40 years of jail with a non-parole period of 30 years, after being convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting five women in Sydney, the Australia Today News reported on Friday.

While sentencing Dhankhar, district court judge Michael King condemned his actions saying that his conduct was "premeditated, elaborately executed, manipulative and highly predatory".

"This was an egregious sequence of planned predatory conduct against five unrelated young and vulnerable women over a significant period," the judge said.

Dhankhar, a former IT consultant, lured women by posting fake job advertisements before drugging them in or near his Sydney home. He then sexually assaulted and raped his victims, filming the crimes for his own future gratification, according to media reports.

He arrived in Australia as a student in 2006, presenting himself as a community-minded individual dedicated to improving the lives of others. However, in 2023, a jury found him guilty of 39 offenses, including 13 counts of sexual assault.

Until his arrest in 2018, Dhankhar was highly regarded among the Indian-Australian community, and acted as a spokesman for the Hindu Council of Australia, the report said.

Dhankhar had denied drugging the women or engaging in non-consensual sex, claiming in a report that his understanding of consent differs from the legal definition. His non-parole period, backdated to the end of his trial, will expire in April 2053.