Aravindan Balakrishnan, a 75-year-old Indian-origin man who ran a secretive extremist Maoist cult here, was today sentenced to 23 years in jail by a UK court for a string of sexual assaults.
Balakrishnan, known to his followers as Comrade Bala, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London for six counts of indecent assault, four counts of rape and two counts of actual bodily harm.
He had been convicted following a jury trial in December last year.
His wife, Chanda Balakrishnan, who had lived with him as part of the Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought for nearly 30 years had claimed earlier this weekthat his conviction was a "frame-up".
She had been unaware that her husband had fathered a daughter with his devoted follower Sian Davies and kept her imprisoned in a London flat for years.
Balakrishnan had denied charges of rape and told the jurythat he was "the focus of competition" between "jealous" women who made sexual advances on him.
The sentencing ends an over two-year police investigation into a case which Scotland Yard detectives described as "completely unique".
Detective chief superintendent Tom Manson, from the Metropolitan Police's Organised Crime Command, said: "It seems extraordinary thatBalakrishnancould command such control over so many people, however all of the victims have told us in great detail that they very much believed his claims of power and greatness and the threats he made to them".
"They all described feelings of fear and being totally controlled him. All of the women have faced huge challenges in adapting to day-to-day life since they leftBalakrishnan's control but with the support of a number of charities and professionals are making exceptional progress and their bravery deserves recognition and praise," he said.
