NEW DELHI: The pronouncement of quantum of sentence in the case of criminal assault and murder of Australian tourist Dawn Emilie Griggs by two taxi drivers in the Capital has been deferred by a week by a local court here.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar reserved the order for August 11 after hearing the argument of the prosecution and the defence on the quantum of sentence. The sentence was earlier slated to be pronounced on Monday.

The accused — Jyotish Prasad and Ashish Kumar — were on Saturday held guilty of killing Ms. Griggs after criminally assaulting her and robbing her of valuables.

Ms. Griggs had arrived in Delhi from Hong Kong by a Cathay Pacific Flight in the early hours of March 17, 2004, for enrolling in a meditation course with Brahmakumari Aishwarya Vidyalaya. She took a pre-paid taxi from the airport and was later found murdered in a deserted field with multiple stab injuries.

After committing the murder, the accused tried to make off with her belongings but abandoned them a few hundred meters away on not finding anything substantial in her bags. The police reached the duo by scrutinising the records of the pre-paid taxi booth at the airport.

As there was no eyewitness to the gruesome killing, the prosecution relied on circumstantial and forensic evidences including the DNA reports of the taxi drivers.

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