A grieving family has opened up about how a loving grandfather was killed by a single punch after mistakenly being accused of kidnapping a young boy from a playground.
Mewa Singh, 60, was visiting his 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 on, his son Himanshu Keshwer, 33, said that the entire family is still struggling to come to terms with the senseless killing.
He recalled his final memories of his father playing with his baby granddaughter and that ‘everything was good’.
‘Someone killed my dad and I couldn’t do anything, and still can’t do anything,’ Mr Keshwer told Stuff.
‘It makes me sad, it 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 skull fracture and internal bleeding in Christchurch Hospital’s intensive care unit. The grandfather died two days after the attack after being taken off life support
Haunting details of Mr Singh’s death can be revealed for the first time after the man’s guilty plea was entered last Friday.
The man had taken his seven-year-old son to a skate park at Linwood Park at about 6.30pm, according to the police summary of facts,
The boy refused to leave the park and his father left to teach him a lesson.
The man returned to the park a short time later and and became ‘enraged’ after 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 yelled out ‘that’s my f***ing son’, the court heard.
He told Mr Singh to get his hands off his son.
The man then drove his son back to his ex-partner’s house and told her 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 daddy’s car’, the summary stated.
The man didn’t accept that, and said ‘f*** this, I’m going back there to find him’.
The court heard that 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 shirt collar and accused him of trying to abduct his son.
After shoving Mr Singh, the man delivered a ‘haymaker-style punch’ to his jaw which caused the grandfather to fall backwards and hit his head.
Believing that Mr Singh was dead, the man left the park and returned to his ex-partner’s house.
The court heard that he told her he had punched a man and thought he had killed him.
He later made the same admission to his flatmate.
The loving grandfather Mewa Singh is pictured with his baby granddaughter Riana
He was arrested at his home after his ex-partner called police.
The man will be sentenced in the High Court for Mr Singh’s manslaughter in October.
Mr Singh was treated for a skull fracture 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 prior to his father’s death.
He has since returned to India with his family to care for his grieving mother.
The New Zealand Sikh society created a Givealittle fundraising page after Mr Singh’s death to help fund the family’s return to India.
