On the evening of April 7, a man, whose identity remains suppressed, drove his 7-year-old son to Linwood Park in Christchurch around 6:30 p.m. After some time at the skatepark, he instructed his son to leave, but the boy did not follow. To "teach his son a lesson," the father drove off, only to return shortly after, The New Zealand Herald reported.
Upon his return, he saw a man, later identified as Mewa Singh, holding his son's hand near a bus stop. The man, enraged by the sight, confronted Singh, demanding he release his son and shoving him. Singh, a 60-year-old visiting New Zealand from India, was trying to walk the boy to his father's car.
The father then drove his son back to his ex-partner's house around 7:15 p.m., explaining that he had seen their son with an unknown man. Despite his ex-partner's advice not to return, he headed back to the park, determined to find the stranger.
Finding Singh at the park, the man grabbed him by the collar, accusing him of attempting to abduct his son. He shoved Singh before delivering a single "haymaker-style punch" to his jaw. Singh fell backward, hitting his head on the pavement.
Believing Singh to be dead, the man left the scene and returned to his ex-partner's house, where he admitted to her that he had punched a man and thought he had killed him. Emergency services were called, and the man later confessed the same to his flatmate.
Singh never regained consciousness. He was taken to Christchurch Hospital's Intensive Care Unit with a skull fracture and internal bleeding. His injuries were deemed inoperable, and he died after being taken off life support on April 9.
In police interviews, the man claimed he believed Singh was trying to abduct his son and that he had lost control in the heat of the moment. He expressed concern that he might have killed Singh.
The man is set to be sentenced for the manslaughter of Mewa Singh in the High Court on October 22.
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