A grieving family tells of how their beloved grandfather was killed in a single blow after he was wrongly accused of kidnapping a young boy from a playground.
Mewa Singh, 60, was visiting his family from India when he was murdered at a skate park in Christchurch, New Zealand, on April 7 last year.
A 32-year-old man, whose name has been withheld for legal reasons, appeared in the High Court in Christchurch last Friday where he pleaded guilty to killing Mr Singh.
Fifteen months later, his son Himanshu Keshwer, 33, says the entire family is still struggling with the senseless murder.
He thought back to his last memories, of his father playing with his granddaughter and how ‘everything was fine’.
“Someone killed my father and I couldn’t do anything, and still can’t do anything,” Mr. Keshwer said Stuff.
“It makes me sad, this shouldn’t have happened.”
Mr Keshwer added that his kind and caring father would never hurt anyone, let alone a child.
Mewa Singh (left) is pictured with his son Himanshu Keswher, his granddaughter Riana and Mr Singh’s wife Darshni Devi
Mewa Singh (pictured) was treated for a fractured skull and internal bleeding in the intensive care unit of Christchurch Hospital. The grandfather died two days after the attack after being taken off life support
The harrowing details of Singh’s death are being revealed for the first time after the man admitted his guilt last Friday.
The man had taken his 7-year-old son to a skate park in Linwood Park around 6:30 p.m., according to the police report of the incident,
The boy refused to leave the park and his father went away to teach him a lesson.
The man returned to the park a short time later and became ‘enraged’ when he saw an unknown man, later identified as Mr Singh, holding his son’s hand at a bus stop.
As the man approached the bus stop, he shouted: “That’s my f***ing son,” the court heard.
He told Mr. Singh to keep his hands off his son.
The man then drove back to his ex-partner’s house with his son and told her that he had seen his son with an Indian man.
According to the report, the boy told his father that Mr. Singh “tried to walk him to his father’s car.”
The man didn’t accept that and said: ‘Fuck this, I’m going back to find him’.
The court heard that the man returned to the park despite his ex-partner telling him not to go there anymore.
The report states that the man found Mr Singh, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and accused him of trying to kidnap his son.
After pushing Mr Singh, the man delivered a “haymaker-style punch” to his jaw, causing the grandfather to fall backwards and hit his head.
Thinking Mr Singh was dead, the man left the park and returned to his ex-partner’s home.
The court heard he told her he had punched a man and that he thought he had killed him.
He later made the same confession to his roommate.
Doting grandfather Mewa Singh is pictured with his granddaughter Riana
He was arrested at home after his ex-partner called the police.
The man will be sentenced by the High Court in October for Mr Singh’s death.
Mr Singh was treated in intensive care at Christchurch Hospital for a fractured skull and internal bleeding but never regained consciousness.
Two days later he died after the ventilator was stopped.
Keshwer lived in New Zealand for 14 years before his father died.
He has since returned to India with his family to care for his grieving mother.
The New Zealand Sikh Association has a Give a little After Mr Singh’s death, a fundraising page was set up to fund the family’s return to India.
