Man planned to skip country after killing, court told 

When Laxman Rajamani's wife told him she was leaving, he slit her throat and made preparations to burn down their unit in Mt Eden.

In his opening address to a jury at the High Court in Auckland yesterday prosecutor John Dixon said that Rajamani also made hurried plans to flee to his native India.

Rajamani, a 35-year-old accountant, who is represented by Robin Brown, denies the murder of his wife Chitralekha Ramakrishnan on or about January 13 last year.

In a video statement to the police, Rajamani admitted the killing but said he was provoked.

Mr Dixon told the jury of four women and eight men that the couple, who were relatively recent immigrants, were married in a traditional arranged Hindu wedding in India.

But there were difficulties right from the start and the marriage started to deteriorate.

The police had been called and the wife had a lock put on the door of a second bedroom.

Mr Dixon told the court that the deceased was planning to leave her husband and move into a new flat.

But for him, separation was simply not an option.

The prosecutor said that Mrs Ramakrishnan was also seeking companionship outside the marriage and was having an affair, though there was no evidence that her husband was aware that she had a lover.

Mr Dixon told the court that Mrs Ramakrishnan arranged for a friend of the family to tell her husband that the marriage was over.

Within hours the woman was dead.

The Crown says that Rajamani bashed her twice on the head with a brick before slashing her throat.

He then dragged the body upstairs and put it on the bed and made a haphazard attempt to clean up.

Mr Dixon said that Rajamani also considered setting the house on fire and went to two petrol stations where he bought six petrol containers and 70 litres of petrol.

They were later located in various rooms in the unit.

Mr Dixon said that Rajamani went to his office to clear out his things and pick up emails.

He also made urgent plans to fly back to India, arranging to meet a travel agent at 6am.

Mr Dixon said that Rajamani was in contact with his family back in India who persuaded him to give himself in.

After he called the police, he asked one of the officers who arrived at his flat: "What is the penalty for murder in New Zealand?"

In his video statement he said that his wife was praying on her knees in the kitchen when he reached for a brick, used for cracking coconuts, which was kept on top of the fridge.

But he said he stumbled and dropped the brick on her head.

She started accusing him of attempting to kill her and kept trying to get to the phone to call the police while he tried to stop her.

He said he was provoked, reached for the knife and slit her throat.

Mr Dixon said that the claim of provocation could not survive serious analysis and there was no real act of provocation.

All that happened was that he had been informed that his wife was leaving him.

It happened every week in New Zealand, but most marriage break-ups didn't end in someone being killed.

- NZPA