TWO TAXI DRIVERS GET DEATH FOR KILLING AUSTRALIAN WOMAN
New Delhi August 12:
Two taxi drivers were awarded death sentence by a Delhi court for killing 59-year-old Australian tourist Dawn Emilie Griggs after gang raping and robbing her in 2004.
"Jyotish Prasad and Ashish Kumar, for the offence of brutal murder of the Australian tourist, you be hanged till death," Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said, pronouncing the sentence in a packed courtroom.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 each on the two convicts who were held guilty of gang rape, robbery, destruction of evidence and common intention. The court had convicted the two accused on August two. Besides awarding the death penalty for murder, the court also handed down the convicts’ rigorous life imprisonment for gang raping of the tourist who had come here to join a meditation course.
On pronouncement of the verdict, convict Prasad's mother started crying inconsolably inside the courtroom. "My poor and innocent son is wrongly being awarded death penalty," she said. Griggs who landed in Delhi from Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific Flight in the wee hours of March 17, 2004 for enrolling for a meditation course with Brahmakumari Aishwarya Vidyalaya here, had taken a pre-paid taxi from IGI airport and was later found murdered.
The court convicted Prasad, 28, and Kumar, in his early 30's, for the various offences in a case which hinged on circumstantial evidence. As there was no eyewitness to the gruesome killing, the prosecution had relied upon circumstantial as well as forensic evidence, including the DNA reports of the convicts, to prove its charges against them.
The police had traced the duo by scrutinising the records of pre-paid taxi booth at the airport. Prasad was arrested on the date of incident while Kumar was apprehended on his disclosure on March 21.
New Delhi August 12:
Two taxi drivers were awarded death sentence by a Delhi court for killing 59-year-old Australian tourist Dawn Emilie Griggs after gang raping and robbing her in 2004.
"Jyotish Prasad and Ashish Kumar, for the offence of brutal murder of the Australian tourist, you be hanged till death," Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said, pronouncing the sentence in a packed courtroom.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 each on the two convicts who were held guilty of gang rape, robbery, destruction of evidence and common intention. The court had convicted the two accused on August two. Besides awarding the death penalty for murder, the court also handed down the convicts’ rigorous life imprisonment for gang raping of the tourist who had come here to join a meditation course.
On pronouncement of the verdict, convict Prasad's mother started crying inconsolably inside the courtroom. "My poor and innocent son is wrongly being awarded death penalty," she said. Griggs who landed in Delhi from Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific Flight in the wee hours of March 17, 2004 for enrolling for a meditation course with Brahmakumari Aishwarya Vidyalaya here, had taken a pre-paid taxi from IGI airport and was later found murdered.
The court convicted Prasad, 28, and Kumar, in his early 30's, for the various offences in a case which hinged on circumstantial evidence. As there was no eyewitness to the gruesome killing, the prosecution had relied upon circumstantial as well as forensic evidence, including the DNA reports of the convicts, to prove its charges against them.
The police had traced the duo by scrutinising the records of pre-paid taxi booth at the airport. Prasad was arrested on the date of incident while Kumar was apprehended on his disclosure on March 21.
