An Indian court has ordered the extradition of Rajwinder Singh to Australia, where he will face trial over the alleged murder of Toyah Cordingley.
Singh has been wanted since Ms Cordingley‘s body was discovered on Wangetti Beach in Cairns in 2018.
Police allege the former Queensland nurse fled to the northern Indian state of Punjab after Ms Cordingley was killed while walking her dog. She was 24 years old.
Singh told an Indian court he wanted to waive his right to challenge extradition from India to Australia.
He is expected to land back in Australia within a month.
In an official statement to the Delhi District Court this week, Singh said he wanted to be extradited as soon as possible to contest the charge, the ABC reported.
A few days earlier, he reportedly told AAP “I did not kill the woman”.
“I want to go back. It is the (Indian) judicial system that has been holding things up,” he was reported to have said.
Indian authorities arrested Singh, 38, in connection with Ms Cordingley’s murder in November last year after a four years-long manhunt.
About three weeks earlier Queensland Police had offered a $1 million reward for information from the public leading to the location and arrest of Mr Singh.
Police said he lived in Innisfail but was originally from Buttar Kalan, in Punjab.
The former nurse left behind his job, wife and their three children when he flew from Cairns to Sydney and then out of Australia after Ms Cordingley’s death.
In October last year, family, friends and the wider community marked the fourth anniversary of Ms Cordingley’s death with a service at the memorial site built by her loved ones at Wangetti Beach.
Family spokesman David Trimble told NCA NewsWire they think of her everyday.
“She’d probably be married now or have kids. She loved animals, so she would probably be working with them,” he said at the time.
He added: “The community, the family and the authorities will never give up on it and I mean that.
“It was horrific what happened and it really stung the community here.
“It was on our doorstep and it was absolutely terrible, it shook a lot of people.”
