The man accused of murdering Gurjit Singh in his Dunedin home has appeared in court.
The 33-year-old technician came before the Dunedin District Court this afternoon accused of killing the Pine Hill resident who was married in India only eight months ago.
Justice of the Peace Helen Meiklejohn granted name suppression to the defendant who appeared in the dock wearing a green gown and a beanie.
The man was remanded in custody until later this month when he will appear in the High Court at Dunedin.
According to court documents, the murder took place the previous day.
His father Nishan Singh, who arrived in Dunedin today, commended police for their work.
However, he would not be happy until justice was done, as "no parent should lose a son" in the way he had.
He said he wanted to know why his son was killed.
The Otago Punjabi Foundation Trust set up a Givealittle page to support Mr Singh’s family, which had already generated more than $17,000 in five hours from more than 300 donors.
Nishan Singh said he had sold a lot of his land in his village in Punjab to send Mr Singh to New Zealand.
The proceeds of the fundraiser would also help with costs for transporting Mr Singh’s body back to India.
Det Snr Sgt Croudis said a large team of investigators had worked extensively on the case, but the enquiry was not complete.
The hours of work put in by members of Environmental Science and Research, both at the scene and the laboratory, were invaluable, Det Snr Sgt Croudis said
"We wish to thank members of the public for their information and CCTV footage provided, which has helped greatly with the investigation."
"Our thoughts remain with the family at this extremely difficult time," Det Snr Sgt Croudis said.
Friends shocked at Mr Singh’s death told the Otago Daily Times last week there were no signs anything was wrong when they were with him the previous night.
He shared with them his excitement about his wife, whom he married in India in June, moving to New Zealand next month to live at his Hillary St house.
"He was excited for his wife to come and wanted to show her around, taking her to places like Queenstown," one said.
He arrived at their flat about 9pm and left between 10.30pm and 11pm and shared pizza and soft drink.
The friends, who used to flat with Mr Singh, were speaking with Mr Singh’s family and helping arrange for the body to be repatriated to India when the post-mortem was complete.
They said Mr Singh’s wife was distraught when she was told her husband was dead.
"As soon as she found out she screamed and actually they all started screaming. They really want to know what’s happened and until then they will feel unsettled."
Additional reporting mark.john@odt.co.nz
