45-year-old Amol Vijay Dhumal, an Indian-origin electrician in Sydney, raped a 75-year-old woman in her home where Dhumal went to instal solar panels in 2024. Dhumal has been found guilty by jury verdict of sexual intercourse without consent and has been sentenced to five years in prison. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the verdict was given in September and the sentence was announced last week. Dhumal was one of three subcontractors sent to the woman’s home to install solar panels on the morning of April 22, 2024. At the end of their work, Dhumal asked the woman who lived with her. When he was told that she lived alone, Dhumal hugged her and tried to kiss her, saying that she reminded him of his mother. The woman asked him to leave but Dhumal returned after two days to fix an issue with the power. Dhumal asked the woman if her children visited often and then told her that his wife never had sex with him. He then grabbed the woman and raped her in her room, injuring her.The woman told the court that she was only existing and not living after the incident. “I’m in prison in my own home,” she said, adding that she withdrew herself from all volunteer work that she had been involved with. “This home is supposed to give me the security, peace and lasting good memories but now it is a horror tragic place to live,” she wrote in her statement. “I now bolt all the windows and doors and feel so alarmed that out there someone knows I live alone – and will just come in again and harm me.”“That very evil person who has a very evil mind, evil heart, an evil and filthy mouth and his evil action that has inflicted this horrendous in my life,” the woman said. Dhumal convinced his wife to appear in the court and show her support. His wife Gauri appeared in the court for his sentencing, where she said she understood the verdict but did not want to talk about the case. “My husband is loving and respectful,” she told the court.After the rape, Dhumal told the authroities that the woman fabricated the sexual assault because he did not answer a phone call from her.
