The jail term imposed for the baby's death was “as merciful as the law reasonably allows me to be”, Justice Ellis said.
This article includes details of a fatal injury to a child and may be upsetting for some people.
“I do believe in forgiving. It is just a process that will take time.”
These were the words of a wife and mother as her husband was jailed today for shaking their baby and causing a brain bleed that claimed the infant’s life.
Ram Kishore, 28, appeared in the High Court in Hastings after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his son Aarav Kushwaha, who was nearly three months old, in Napier in March 2021.
He was jailed for two years and nine months by Justice Rebecca Ellis.
Kishore’s wife, Shefali Saini, tearfully read a victim impact statement to the court, which Justice Ellis described as “incredibly powerful and moving”.
In it, Saini described meeting Kishore and marrying him despite her parents’ disapproval before the couple moved from India to New Zealand.
She also described the birth of baby Aarav in December 2020, an event that prompted her father to start talking to her again after shunning her for five years.
Aarav, she said, was an “angel sent to reunite father and daughter”.
“I was the happiest mum in the world,” Saini said. “He was such a bundle of joy … He was the sweetest gift God gave me. We were such proud parents.”
Saini secured a job managing the Marineland Motel in Napier, while Kishore worked as a taxi driver.
On the morning of March 20, 2021, Saini was working around the motel while Kishore had the sole care of their baby.
During that time, in what Crown Solicitor Steve Manning called a “tragedy from all angles”, Kishore shook Aarav with force, causing a fatal brain bleed and retinal damage.
Up until that time, and since, Kishore had been a loving and caring parent, Manning said.
Defence counsel Matthew Phelps said: “We are dealing with a father who very much loved his son, who in a momentary loss of control has brought about the death of that child.”
A Crown summary of facts said that Kishore and Saini lived at the motel’s manager’s unit.
Kishore returned home about 12.30am on March 20, 2021, after completing a taxi-driving shift. The baby woke about 8.30am and was in his father’s care while Saini worked around the motel.
At 11.04am, Kishore made a video of Aarav playing happily under a baby gym.
Kishore had sole care of the boy between 11.58am and 1.22pm, when he ran from the unit with Aarav unresponsive in his arms.
The Crown summary said that in those 24 minutes, Kishore forcefully shook Aarav, causing a brain injury so severe that the baby stopped breathing.
Aarav was resuscitated and taken to Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings before being transferred to Starship in Auckland.
“Unfortunately, despite maximum medical treatment to reduce the swelling and pressure in Aarav’s brain, he was unable to survive the injuries,” the Crown summary said.
He died at 9.55am on March 23.
The court was told that since Aarav’s death, the couple have had a daughter and another baby is due in February. Oranga Tamariki had restricted the supervised time he is allowed to have with his daughter while he was on bail.
Saini said that she was an “honest and loyal partner” and in her culture it would be a sin for her to think about any other man.
The couple had been through a restorative justice process in which Kishore had apologised to her.
“He is the reason my son is not with me, but he is the reason I have my daughter,” she said.
Justice Ellis said a baby’s death was a terrible thing, but the manslaughter was not among the worst cases of its kind.
She said Kishore was a loving parent, who acted recklessly and was maybe out of his depth when caring for the boy.
The jail sentence she imposed was “as merciful as the law reasonably allows me to be”.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.