North Waikato homicide: Man who died after being found critically injured on Hampton Downs Road was returning from Taupō - mother

• Darshak Naran died in Auckland City Hospital after earlier being found critically injured on Hampton Downs Rd in Whangamarino on Monday.
• Two men have been arrested and charged with murder, with police not ruling out further charges and arrests.
• His mother, Queen’s Service Medal recipient Hansa Dhanji Naran, says her son was returning to Auckland from visiting a friend in Taupō before his death.

A man who died after being found critically injured on a north Waikato road had been travelling home to Auckland from visiting a friend in Taupō before he was killed, his mother says.

Two men have been charged with murder after Darshak Naran died in Auckland City Hospital this week after the 43-year-old was found injured on Hampton Downs Rd in Whangamarino early Monday morning.

A 32-year-old was arrested in Papakura on Thursday and a 42-year-old was arrested in Auckland yesterday, with both charged with murder and police not ruling out further arrests and charges as their inquiries continue, Detective Senior Sergeant Kristine Clarke said earlier.

But while she was aware of the arrests, the dead man’s Clarks Beach-based mother didn’t know how her son came to be on Hampton Downs Rd.

“He was just visiting a friend in Taupō and he was on his way back to Auckland”, Hansa Dhanji Naran told the Herald.

She didn’t know if she or her son knew the men charged with his murder because police wouldn’t tell her their names.

Police closed Hampton Downs Rd from where it intersects with Landfill Access Rd in Whangamarino after Darshak Naran was found critically injured on the road, Naran later died in Auckland City Hospital, and two men have been charged with murder. Photo / Maryana Garcia

Naran, an accountant who received a Queen’s Service Medal in this year’s New Year Honours list for decades of services to the Indian and wider community, also hadn’t yet received the autopsy report, she said.

“All we know is that they’ve arrested [two people] – one was going to court and they were in the process of arresting another [yesterday], the last I heard.”

Hansa Naran, pictured second from left, in Hawke's Bay's Esk Valley after Cyclone Gabrielle last year. She was there as treasurer for the NZ Indian Central Association, which donated $100,001 fundraised from Kiwi Indian communities for cyclone relief. Also pictured are president Narendra Bhana (right), general secretary Prakash Biradar and assistant secretary Dhansukh Lal. Photo / Warren Buckland.

Her son’s body had just been released, and she was organising his funeral, likely to take place in Manukau on Tuesday.

Darshak was one of her two sons, said Naran, who is widowed.

He was single and had lived in Australia for more than 20 years before coming home to New Zealand six months ago, she said.

“He wasn’t quite sure whether to go back, or stay here.”

Speaking through tears, Naran described her son as a kind person who was “very generous”.

* Police want to hear from anyone who was travelling on Hampton Downs Rd between 10pm on Sunday, October 13, and 1am on October 14, particularly if they have dashcam footage. Anyone who can help should update police online now or call 105, using the reference number 241014/2225.

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.

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