Canberra: Australian police on Thursday offered a one-million Australian dollar ($633,000) bounty that leads to the location of an Indian national suspected of killing a woman four years ago before returning to her homeland on a tropical beach.
Detective Inspector Sonia Smith said Queensland state police officers, who speak Hindi and Punjabi, are waiting to be contacted at the Cairns office from India via WhatsApp or online about 38-year-old Rajwinder Singh's whereabouts.
Singh was a nurse working in Enisfel, south of Cairns, when the body of 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley was discovered on Monday, October 22, 2018 at Wangatti Beach.
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She had gone to the north beach of Cairns to walk her dog the day before. According to police, the day Cordingley's body was found, Singh took a flight from Cairns to Sydney and then returned to India the next day.
The prize is the largest in Queensland history, and is unusual in that it does not seek a clue that leads to a successful prosecution. Instead, money is offered in exchange for information that only leads to the location and arrest of a suspect.
Police Minister Mark Ryan approved the bounty and expressed confidence that Singh could be traced. “We know that people know who this person is and where they are, and we are telling those people to do the right thing,” Ryan said.
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“There are now a million reasons for a billion eyes around the world to help us deliver justice for Toyah,” he continued.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Tracy Lindford said detectives believe Singh is still in India. He asked witnesses from India's 1.4 billion people to come forward and "give some relief to the family that misses Toya."
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Smith said three Queensland detectives are already in India and working with Indian authorities to investigate.