Poison rub guilt

Aman killed in a head-on crash in Tauranga on Wednesday was about to become a father. Parminder Singh Jabbal, 27, died in a collision between his car and a truck on State Highway 36 between Rotorua and Tauranga shortly before 4am on Wednesday.

The O¯ hauiti man died at the scene. His death has been referred to the coroner.

Yesterday his younger brother in India, Jasneet Singh, said Jabbal’s death had come as a shock to his family.

“We still don’t believe it.” Singh understood his brother, a healthcare worker who he described as calm and a hard-working man of few words, had been on the way home from a night shift when the crash happened.

Singh said he last spoke to his brother two days ago.

“He was really happy. He had a good job. He was making good money.

“Everything was going good for him and he was about to become a father.”

Singh said Jabbal’s girlfriend in New Zealand was pregnant with their baby boy — to be named Parminder Junior — and is due in October. “He was happy to become a father.” She broke the news to the family in an early morning phone call on Wednesday.

“We never expected this. We don’t know what happened that night.”

Singh said he and his father had not told Jabbal’s mother her son had died. “We have told her he is in hospital. She won’t be able to take it.”

He said the family was making arrangements through a funeral director to bring Jabbal’s body back to India, but it would likely take 10 to 12 days.

“We want to perform his last rites here in India.”

The family would invite his girlfriend to come too but understood she may not be able to fly.

“We are asking her to come here so we can look after her.” A Nelson woman has been found guilty of offensive behaviour after rat poison was rubbed on National MP Nick Smith. Smith said Rose Renton and another protester rubbed the poison on him at a Saturday market in Nelson in September. She was charged with offensive behaviour and Justices of the Peace found her guilty, RNZ reported. Renton came to national prominence in 2015 when her son Alex became incapacitated in hospital with a prolonged seizure.