A grieving family has opened up about how a loving grandfather was killed with a single punch after being wrongly accused of kidnapping a child from a playground.
Mewa Singh, 60, was visiting family from India when he was killed at a skate park in Christchurch, New Zealand, on April 7 last year.
A 32-year-old man, whose name has been suppressed for legal reasons, appeared in the High Court in Christchurch last Friday where he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Singh.
Fifteen months later, her son Himanshu Keshwer, 33, said the entire family is still struggling to come to terms with the senseless killing.
He recalled his last memories of his father playing with his little granddaughter and that “everything was fine.”
“Someone killed my father and I couldn’t do anything, and I still can’t do anything,” Keshwer said. Stuff.
“It makes me sad, it shouldn’t have happened.”
Mr Keshwer added that his kind and loving father would never hurt anyone, let alone a child.
Mewa Singh (left) is pictured with her son Himanshu Keswher, 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 at Christchurch Hospital. The grandfather died two days after the attack, after being taken off life support.
The disturbing details of Mr Singh’s death have emerged for the first time since he pleaded guilty 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 summary of facts.
The boy refused to leave the park and his father came out 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 near 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 take his hands off his son.
The man then took his son to his ex-partner’s house and told her that he had seen his son with an Indian man.
According to the summary, the boy told his father that Mr. Singh was “trying to walk him to Dad’s car,” the summary states.
The man didn’t accept it and said, “Fuck this, I’m going back there to get it.”
The court heard the man returned to the park, despite his ex-partner telling him not to go back there.
The summary stated 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 “hard punch” to his jaw which caused the grandfather to fall backwards and hit his head.
Believing Mr Singh to be 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 thought he had killed him.
He later confessed the same thing to his roommate.
Doting grandfather Mewa Singh is pictured with his little granddaughter Riana.
He was arrested at his home after his ex-partner called the police.
The man will be sentenced in the High Court for Mr Singh’s murder in October.
Mr Singh was treated for a fractured skull and internal bleeding in Christchurch Hospital’s intensive care ward but never regained consciousness.
He died two days later after being taken off life support.
Keshwer had been living in New Zealand for 14 years before his father’s death.
She has since returned to India with her family to care for her grieving mother.
New Zealand’s Sikh society created a Give a little bit Fundraising page set up after Mr Singh’s death to help fund the family’s return to India.