The Indian Weekender, 12 March 2021

2 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, March 12, 2021
The Indian Weekender
Man found dead in burning
car in Flat Bush identified
as an Indian national
People gathered at Kunal Khera's funeral service in Auckland
RIZWAN MOHAMMAD
An Indian man has died after his body
was found in a burning car in Flat Bush
on Saturday, March 6.
The man was identified as a 26-year-old
Indian national Kunal Khera living in Manukau,
South Auckland.
Emergency services were called to Barry
Curtis Park in Flat Bush at around 8:10 p.m. on
Saturday when members of the public noticed
smoke billowing of a vehicle in the car park.
Police on Sunday reported that the body
was found inside a silver Mazda, and a scene
examination was conducted after.
The site of the incident was blessed and
released back to the public on Sunday, Police
confirmed.
The post-mortem of the body was conducted
on Monday, March 8. However, the Police
are still treating the death as unexplained
and is continuing to make enquiries into the
circumstances surrounding Kunal’s death.
“Police have been in contact with Mr Khera’s
family in India and are supporting them as best
we can.
“Our deepest thoughts and sympathies are
with them at this difficult time,” Detective
Senior Sergeant Natalie Nelson from Counties
Manukau Police said.
Kunal is survived by his parents and a
younger sister in India.
Kunal Khera had planned to
move to Canada later this year
The Indian man Kunal Khera found dead in
a burnt-out car in the parking of Barry Curtis
Park of Flat Bush, was working hard to save
money to finance his intended move to Canada
for a better life.
Kunal’s close friend Utkarsh, who had
spent considerable time with him during their
student and working life in Auckland and
Christchurch, told the Indian Weekender that
he was regularly in touch with Kunal, with the
last communication with him happening on
February 28 when the latter sent him a photo of
their favourite restaurant in Christchurch where
they used to dine often.
“I had received a call from one of our
common friends who would also visit him
often, enquiring if I had seen or heard from
Kunal following a similar such enquiry call
from another friend checking about him.”
Apparently, Police’s initial enquiry on the
burnt car found in Flat Bush has precipitated
a chain of phone calls between Kunal’s friends
who frantically were checking about his
whereabouts and secretly wishing to find him
somewhere “alive.”
“It is always sad to learn of such unfortunate
and tragic deaths in a foreign country, far away
from near and dear ones. I can understand the
deep pain which his parents in Punjab would
be going through. My deepest sympathies are
with them.
“From the Indian High Commission, we
would like to offer whatever help we could
extend in facilitating funeral and other
formalities. The High Commission is after all
home away from home for all Indian nationals
living in New Zealand,” Muktesh Pardeshi,
High Commissioner of India in New Zealand
told The Indian Weekender.
“I told him I had last spoken to him on
February 28 when Kunal messaged me from
a restaurant in Christchurch where we would
often go dining,” Utkarsh said.
Kunal worked multiple jobs in Auckland and
Christchurch after completing his studies at
Edenz Colleges in Auckland in 2016.
“He worked very hard all these years, paid
his student loan and saved enough to move to
Canada by the end of 2021 and settle there.
“Kunal was on a work visa, and his visa was
due to expire in May this year, and he wanted
to extend his visa for a few more months before
moving to Canada,” Utkarsh said.
Kunal hailed from Patiala district in Punjab
in India and came to New Zealand on a student
visa in 2016. He studied Graduate Diploma
Kunal Khera (behind) with his friend Utkarsh.
(Photo: Supplied)
in Business Studies from Edenz Colleges in
Auckland. He worked at a car wash company
in Epsom before securing a job at the airport in
Christchurch.
“Kunal worked at Enterprise Car Rental at
Christchurch airport and was good at his job,”
Utkarsh said.
Utkarsh added that Kunal’s parents visited
him recently in late 2019 and returned to India
in early 2020 before the Covid pandemic had
closed the borders.
“I met his parents in Christchurch when we
were working at the car rental company and
also often spoke to them when Kunal would be
on a video call with his parents back in India,”
Utkarsh added.
Both Utkarsh and Kunal lost their jobs at
the rental company during Covid last year and
started doing Uber Eats to make their ends
meet.
“We lost our jobs back in 2020, and as a
result, we started doing Uber Eats to make our
living until something more concrete came our
way,” Utkarsh said.
Utkarsh moved to Auckland in July 2020,
and soon Kunal followed him.
Kunal initially boarded with a college mate
in South Auckland before moving to a single
apartment house a month and a half ago.
He recalled the phone call from a friend
checking Kunal’s whereabouts following the
Police’s lead as precipitating gut-wrenching
fear about his friend’s well-being.
Utkarsh’s worst fears came true when he
was informed by the common friend later that
his cousin has identified the body found as his
friend Kunal Khera.
Utkarsh said hearing about Kunal’s death
that too in such a manner has shocked him, and
he is still coming to terms with losing one of his
closest friends in New Zealand.
“I have known Kunal for four years now, and
we became really close friends in the last two
years when we worked together when he would
often drop by home for meals and drinks, and
we spent hours talking to each other.
“Kunal was a cheerful and honest person;
people loved being in his company,” he added.
Another friend of Kunal, living overseas now,
said she had known Kunal in work capacity
from Epsom in Auckland. She said he was a
decent human being and very hard working.
Kunal Khera cremated in
Auckland
The family of Kunal Khera, upon advice from
NZ Police and other authorities, gave consent
to conduct Kunal’s last rites in Auckland in the
presence of his cousin, friends, and community
leaders.
Kunal’s cremation was done at Anns Funeral
Home in Wiri on Wednesday, March 10, after
an hour-long religious ceremony virtually
joined by his family and friends via video link
from India.
Around 50 people have attended Kunal’s
funeral ceremony who laid flowers next to his
closed casket and paid respects to the departed.
The Indian Weekender has reliably learnt
from a source that Kunal’s body suffered
over 70 per cent of burns that made the body
repatriation option for the family nearly
impossible.
Kunal’s last remains will be sent to his family
in India.