Australian police within the northeast metropolis of Cairns charged Indian nationwide Rajwinder Singh with homicide Thursday, two years after Australia first utilized for his extradition from India.
Singh, 38, has denied killing Toyah Cordingley, 24, as she walked her canine alongside Wangetti Beach north of Cairns in October 2018.
He arrived Wednesday below police escort from New Delhi to Melbourne, Australia. Magistrate Martin Grinberg, having heard police had DNA and phone proof that linked Singh to the homicide, ordered his extradition from Victoria state to Queensland, the place Cordingley died. Singh flew in a chartered jet 1,900 miles north to Cairns on Thursday.
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“We are very relieved to be at this level, and we are going to now begin the judicial course of,” Queensland Police Detective Inspector Sonia Smith mentioned Thursday.
Singh was charged with one rely of homicide and would seem within the Cairns Magistrates Court on Friday, a police assertion mentioned.
Rajwinder Singh, heart, is escorted to a car at Cairns Airport in Australia on March 2, 2023. Indian nationwide Singh will stand trial for a homicide two years after Australia first utilized for his extradition from India. (Brian Cassey/AAP Image by way of AP)
Singh had returned to India from Sydney a day after Cordingley’s physique was discovered and two days after her homicide, abandoning his spouse and three kids at their house south of Cairns in Innisfail, the place he labored as a nurse.
“I’m so relieved to have this individual again right here in Queensland,” Cordingley’s mom, Vanessa Gardiner, mentioned in an announcement. “We thank the neighborhood for the continued love and help all through these troublesome instances.”
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A New Delhi court docket accepted Singh’s extradition in late January after he surrendered his attraction rights, which might have tied up the authorized course of for years.
He was arrested in November 2022 on the outskirts of the Indian capital. His arrest got here three weeks after Queensland police focused him with a $677,000 reward.
Smith wouldn’t touch upon whether or not the reward had been collected, saying it was a confidential course of.
Australia had utilized to India for Singh’s extradition in March 2021, however he couldn’t be discovered. Police suspect he spent most of his time since he left Australia in his house state of Punjab.
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