Up next
Author
Tags

A ruling on the extradition of the man suspected of murdering Toyah Cordingley on a Queensland beach four years ago has been delayed until January 24.
The key reason for several adjournments of Rajwinder Singh’s case is that the New Delhi judge who specialises in extradition cases, Nabeela Wali, is on maternity leave.

“She is the one with the expertise to be able to make decisions and move things along,” a lawyer at the court told AAP without wishing to be identified.

Policemen escort Rajwinder Singh, 38, after he was arrested in New Delhi, India, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. The Indian nurse accused of killing Toyah Cordingley, 24, an Australian woman in Queensland in 2018 was arrested by Delhi Police on Friday. The Queensland Police had offered a reward of 1 million Australian dollars for information leading to Singh's arrest. (AP Photo/Dinesh Joshi)
Policemen escort Rajwinder Singh, 38, after he was arrested in New Delhi. (AP)

In Wali’s absence, the hearings are being held in other courts under other magistrates who have either been on leave or are unfamiliar with the case.

Since Singh, 38, is not contesting his extradition, the case was expected to move quickly by Indian standards.

All it needs is for a magistrate to submit an “inquiry report” to the Ministry of External Affairs that says it meets the criteria for extradition and letting India extradite Singh.

But this is taking a long time. In Friday’s hearing, Magistrate Swati Sharma seemed unfamiliar with the case.

Rajwinder Singh has been arrested over the murder of Toyah Cordingley.
Rajwinder Singh was arrested in India over the murder of Toyah Cordingley. (Nine)

She asked the public prosecutor Ajay Digpaul to indicate where some of the more pertinent documents could be found in the file.

After browsing the file, Sharma gave another date – January 24 – for the next hearing, when she is expected to give her inquiry report.

Singh, an Australian citizen, was arrested in December by Delhi police after a four-year manhunt that followed his flight from Australia just hours after Cordingley’s body was found half-buried in dunes on Wangetti Beach.

Australian police want to question Singh over whether he stabbed Cordingley after an argument over her dog barking at him.

Read Related Also: Has DJ Audits Done Face Reveal? What Does He Look Like? Age, Real Name, And Net Worth

Police said the 24-year-old pharmacy worker had suffered “visible, violent injuries”. Her dog was found tied up nearby.

<p>NSW Police continue to offer more than $21 million in rewards for new information on an array of unsolved cases, some dating as far back as 1970.</p><p>A reward of $500,000 has been offered for information relating to the murder of 17-year-old Michelle Bright, who went missing after attending a friend’s birthday party on February 27, 1999, in Gulgong in the Central Tablelands.</p><p>Police have also earmarked sums of $250,000 for help solving string of other cases, including the kidnapping of 19-month-year-old Rahma El-Dennaoui, taken from a bedroom in her Lurnea home in Sydney’s south-west in November, 2005.</p><p>The same sum is available for anyone with information regarding the disappearance of 22-year-old model Revelle Balmain, last seen in Kingsford in Sydney’s east on November 5, 1994, and believed to have been murdered.</p><p>Police are appealing for information relating to the murder of David Breckenridge, who died from stab wounds inflicted by an unknown assailant in St Leonards, in Sydney’s north, in August 2002.</p><p>NSW Police would also like to speak to anyone with information relating to the infamous Bowraville murders, in which three children - Evelyn Greenup, four, Clinton Speedy-Duroux, 16, and Colleen Walker, 16 - were murdered within five months of each other between late 1990 and early 1991 on the Mid North Coast.</p><p >Investigators are seeking new leads for the murder of 57-year-old Pauline Gillard, shot numerous times at her Balmain home on September 18, 1997.</p><p>Police are eager to identify the gunman responsible for fatally shooting Steven Brooks, 38, his wife Barbara Brooks, 34, and her 13-year-old son Stacey Willoughby in Deniliquin in March, 2000. Local man Damiano Marando was identified as a person of interest but there was insufficient evidence to lay charges.</p><p>Investigations continue into the disappearance and suspected murder of 18-year-old Trudie Adams, last seen getting into a light-coloured Holden panel van on Barrenjoey Road in Newport during the early hours of June 25, 1978. Police believe Ms Adams was kidnapped by two men and murdered.</p><p>Police are seeking information about the murder of mother-of-two Bernadette Wallace, 35, who died after she was stabbed in the heart by a burglar at her North Rocks home in Sydney’s north-west in August, 1994.</p><p>Assistance has also been requested with solving the murder of Turkish consul Sarik Ariyak and his bodyguard, shot dead in Dover Heights in Sydney’s east in December, 1980.</p><p><strong>Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.</strong></p>

Cold cases: Millions of dollars in rewards on offer for help solving NSW’s most notorious murders

Singh’s lawyer asked the magistrate to consider a request to move him to another barracks in Tihar Jail because the current one was “too overcrowded with some 90 inmates”.

He also wants to be given less spicy food because he says it does not agree with him.

The magistrate asked for a formal application to be made.

In an earlier hearing, Singh gave a statement making it clear he wanted to return to Australia to fight the charges and is aware that, if convicted, he could face a life sentence.

His wife and three children are in Australia, where Singh worked as a nurse in Innisfail.

The Indian government has already provisionally consented to Australia’s call for Singh’s extradition but the request needs to be signed off by the court.