Lawyers for the Indian government in the case of a man accused of killing Cairns woman Toyah Cordingley say they have been given a large brief of evidence to support a case to extradite him to Australia.
Former Queensland nurse Rajwinder Singh was arrested on Friday by Indian police in Delhi after the Queensland government announced a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Singh has been wanted for the murder of Ms Cordingley, 24, who was killed while walking alone with her dog at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, in October 2018.
He appeared with his father and lawyer in the Delhi District Court on Wednesday for extradition proceedings, where he stood expressionless in the packed courtroom in the same clothes he was wearing when he was arrested.
Prosecutor for the Indian government Ajay Digpaul said his team would use documents of evidence from Australian authorities to support their case to extradite Mr Singh.
"This is a request by Australian authorities and the request will use the documents collected by Australian authorities," he said.
"After the application, the Indian government authorities have decided that yes, extradition has to take place.
"It is a complete set of [documents on the] investigation which has taken place in Australia and documents relating to the identification of the accused."
Mr Singh's lawyers asked for more documents to be assessed and have not yet challenged or supported the extradition request.
Unless Mr Singh applies for bail, he will remain in South Asia's largest prison complex, Tihar prison, until his next court appearance on December 17.
Reward 'will be fully considered'
Police say that Mr Singh, an Australian citizen, flew to India a day after Ms Cordingley's death and had been avoiding authorities in India's northern Punjab region.
Early in November, the Queensland government offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the location and arrest of Mr Singh. It was the largest reward offer in the state's history.
"The reward has not been issued to date, however, will be fully considered in due course," a Queensland police spokesman told the ABC on Tuesday.
The Australian government applied to extradite Mr Singh to stand trial for Ms Cordingley's murder, but he is first facing a hearing before Delhi's District Court, which will consider whether that should be approved by the Indian government.
The Indian government's lawyers have said they want to see the extradition case completed as quickly as possible.
But previous extradition hearings have taken years, which could lengthen what has already been a long process for Ms Cordingley's family.
A case to extradite Indian man Puneet Puneet for a 2008 hit-and-run death in Victoria has taken almost a decade.
After more than 100 court hearings in Delhi for Mr Puneet to be extradited to Australia, he was granted bail in July to care for his parents in what was a major setback for the federal government's case.
"We can't say what will happen in one case will happen in this case also, in [Mr Singh's] case we can see he has been arrested and produced today," Mr Digpaul said.
