Balesh Dhankhar allegedly drugged and raped five young women
A former ABC contractor is accused of luring five young Korean girls with a fake job advertisement before drugging and raping them on a hidden camera in a watch.
Balesh Dhankhar is on trial for 39 charges, including 13 counts of rape allegedly committed between January and October 2018.
A jury heard that he had a “very specific modus operandi” for catching and raping the women, using the same Korean hotel, cafe and restaurant for nearly all of the rapes.
Prosecutors alleged that he spiked glasses of wine and other beverages with tablets of the sleeping drug Stilnox or the infamous date rape drug rohypnol.
Balesh Dhankhar is accused of luring five young Korean girls with a fake job advertisement before drugging and raping them in front of a camera hidden in a watch.
A jury heard that he had a “very specific modus operandi” for catching and raping the women, using the same Korean hotel, cafe and restaurant for nearly all of the rapes.
When they were unconscious, he allegedly raped them multiple times in his studio in the World Square complex in the Sydney CBD.
Dhankhar allegedly recorded the violations with a camera hidden in a watch he bought on eBay, or on his mobile phone, which were recovered by police.
A detailed spreadsheet discovered by police allegedly contained coded notes on each of his victims, with a column labeled ‘action’ describing the extent to which the sexual activity went: those he accuses of raping were on ‘fourth base’ .
He was arrested on October 21, 2018, after the fifth woman allegedly woke up while he was raping her, and has spent the last more than four years fighting the charges, trying unsuccessfully to have his name redacted.
The ‘senior data visualization consultant’ worked for Sydney Trains throughout the alleged violations, and was hired by Pfizer and ABC on one-year contracts while out on bail from 2019 to 2021.
Dhankhar has pleaded not guilty, claiming the five women consented to sex and being filmed, and is in the midst of a lengthy trial in the New South Wales District Court.
The fourth of his alleged victims bravely told her story in court on Wednesday, claiming she woke up naked in her bed while being raped.
“He was still doing it when I woke up and told him you could stop, I thought we were just friends,” he told the court.
‘I remember he started crying and told him I wanted to go home… he was trying to calm me down “it’s okay, don’t cry, you’re okay…”
The court heard that Dhankhar set up a fake company called The Asia Partnership, named after a real company he used to work for, but without his knowledge.
He posted job ads on Gumtree for a Korean-English translator in late 2017 and throughout 2018 to appeal to women, all in their late 20s.
The woman, whose name cannot be identified, responded to the ad a day after arriving in Australia on October 8, 2018, and met Dhankhar at the Hilton three days later.
She said that he invited her to dinner, but she refused, but met him at a cafe the next day, where he gave her a document to translate.
This time she accepted his invitation to dinner and they went to Koibito, a nearby Korean restaurant, and handed out a bottle or two of soju.
The woman said that she felt good after the restaurant and that in Korea she regularly drank with her friends, where she could have three bottles by herself and feel drunk.
Prosecutor Kate Nightingale told the jury how Dhankhar’s five alleged rapes followed almost exactly the same pattern.
After they responded, he scheduled an interview at the Hilton Hotel in the Sydney CBD, where he asked them about their lives and gave them ‘work’ insights.
Dhankhar allegedly recorded the violations with a camera hidden in a watch he bought on eBay, or on his mobile phone, which were recovered by police.
Balesh Dhankhar is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job advertisement before drugging and raping them on camera.
Dhankhar then invited the women to dinner at Koibito, a nearby Korean restaurant, where they drank soju, wine or a Korean makkoli drink.
The court heard that he allegedly drugged his first known victim there on January 25, 2018, but on future occasions he administered the sedative at her home.
Ms Nightingale told the jury that she convinced them to come to her flat “using a variety of excuses or ruses” such as showing them a good view of the Sydney Opera House.
More to come.