Philip Morgan KC, counsel for the fourth accused, said he wanted more time to speak to his client about filing a formal name suppression application.
No other counsel opposed Justice Timothy Brewer’s decision to lift the interim name suppression orders that had been imposed in the District Court.
Justice Brewer also entered not guilty pleas to each defendant’s murder charge and set down a trial date of February 15, 2027, for five weeks.
However, he said there was potential for the trial to occur six months earlier, in August 2026, if another trial did not proceed, and labelled the 2027 date as “unconscionably distant”.
All defendants were remanded in further custody to reappear in court for a case review hearing in February.
Meanwhile, Darshak’s mother, Hansa Dhanji Naran, earlier told NZME that her son had been travelling back to Auckland after visiting a friend in Taupō before he died.
Darshak was one of her two sons.
She said he was single and had lived in Australia for more than 20 years before coming home to New Zealand six months ago.
“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”.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.
