A Pietermaritzburg couple charged with killing the wife's former lover were convicted of the murder by the city's high court on Tuesday.

Kalisha Rajcoomar had dreamed of marrying Sandesh Poorun and had a child with him. She later lured him to a hotel room, drugged and then had her husband strangle him, the court heard.

Rajcoomar (23) and her husband Amith Sewkarran (26) pleaded guilty and were convicted of Poorun's murder.

They burned his body on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg on 7 February this year.

Rajcoomar said she and Poorun had a love relationship, his family was against it, but he continued seeing her. She then fell pregnant by him. He did not support her or the baby.

After she married Sewkarran a court order protecting the family was obtained against Poorun after he began harassing them.

The State alleged Poorun refused to accept his relationship with her had ended.

As a result of the harassment they decided to kill him.

Under the pretext of wishing to resume her relationship with Poorun, Rajcoomar arranged to meet him at The Gables Inn in Pietermaritzburg on 7 February.

Around 5.30pm Rajcoomar and Poorun went to a Gables room paid for by Sewkarran earlier that day. Rajcoomar plied him with alcohol spiked with Mandrax. Later that evening Sewkarran came to the room, suffocated him with a pillow before strangling him with his hands.

They wrapped his body in linen, took it in Sewkarran's car to a dumping site and burned it.

Attorney Anand Pillay, for Rajcoomar, told Judge Piet Koen that he would call various witnesses, including a psychologist, to testify in mitigation of sentence.

Advocate Auret van Heerden, who had been briefed by Legal Aid to represent Sewkarran, asked the court to order that a psychologist be appointed to interview him. Koen said this would be looked into.

The case was postponed to 11 November.

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