New Delhi

Nearly three months after a man from India was arrested in Delhi in a 2018 Australian woman murder case, he has been extradited to Australia, officials said on Wednesday (March 1). Rajwinder Singh, 38, was arrested in November in India's national capital about four years after Toyah Cordingley, a 24-year-old Queensland woman, was found murdered. "The Queensland Police Service (QPS) in partnership with the Australian Federal Police, Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department and Indian Government, have successfully extradited a man to face prosecution for the murder of a Queensland woman in October 2018," read an official statement. 

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The Queensland Police on November 1 announced a $1 million reward for information in the case. Weeks later, investigating officers received inputs about the whereabouts of Rajwinder Singh, and he was arrested in Delhi on November 25 by Indian authorities. The accused consented to extradition to India on January 10; and on January 24, an Indian court recommended that he should surrender in Australia. 

"A team of detectives from Far North Queensland and the Homicide Investigation Unit travelled to New Delhi last week following approval by the Government of India for the extradition. Accompanied by the team, the 38-year-old man arrived in Melbourne today, March 1, and is expected to face an extradition hearing in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court later today where QPS will apply for his domestic extradition from Victoria to Queensland," the Queensland Police stated. 

Toyah Cordingley was found murdered after she went to walk her dog at Wangetti Beach in Queensland on October 21, 2018. Her body was reportedly found the day after she went missing at the beach, buried in sand dunes. 

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Also read: Indian man on the run arrested for murder of Australian woman on beach four years ago

According to reports, Rajwinder Singh, who worked as a nurse and lived in Australia with his wife and three children, has denied killing Cordingley. "I did not kill the woman," he said outside a Delhi court on his extradition, according to British news platform Guardian, saying that he wanted to "tell the truth to an Australian court. 

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