"That's my f***ing son."
An Indian grandfather was killed by a single punch in New Zealand after being mistakenly accused of kidnapping a young boy from a playground.
Mewa Singh was visiting family when he was killed at a skate park in Christchurch on April 7, 2023.
A 32-year-old man, who has not been named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on July 5, 2024.
The family are still struggling to come to terms with the senseless killing.
His son Himanshu Keshwer recalled his final memories of his father playing with his baby granddaughter and that “everything was good”.
Mr Keshwer said: “Someone killed my dad and I couldn’t do anything, and still can’t do anything.
“It makes me sad, it shouldn’t have happened.”
Mr Keshwer added that his kind father would never hurt anyone, let alone a child.
The court heard that the man had taken his seven-year-old son to a skate park at Linwood Park at about 6:30 pm.
When the boy refused to leave the park, his father left to teach him a lesson.
But when he returned a short while later, the man 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: “That’s my f***ing son.”
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 court summary, the boy told his father that Mr Singh was “trying to walk him to daddy’s car”.
The man did not accept it and said “f*** this, I’m going back there to find him”.
The man returned to the park despite his ex-partner telling him not to go back there.
He found the 60-year-old, grabbed him by the shirt collar and claimed he was kidnapping his son.
After pushing 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.
It was heard that he told her he had punched a man and thought he had killed him. He made the same admission to his flatmate.
He was arrested at his home after his ex-partner called police.
The man will be sentenced in the High Court in October 2024.
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.
Mr Keshwer had been living in New Zealand for 14 years before 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.
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