A MAN on trial for the murder of his wife believed his family was under an evil spell pushed by his in-laws to drive a wedge between the couple.

Odd-job worker Tharema Vejayan Govindasamy, was so spooked he would not stay home alone, his childhood friend told the High Court on Tuesday.

'He would see shadows moving about and believed there was an evil presence in his Jurong West four-room flat that was wrecking his marriage and causing injuries to his children,' said Mr Pannirselvam Anthonisamy in Tamil through an interpreter.

Tharema, 40, is accused of killing his wife Smaelmeeral Abdul Aziz, who fell from the 13th storey of a block in Stirling Road last year. His trial entered the 10th day on Tuesday and he faces the death penalty, if convicted.

The court heard earlier that Tharema blamed his sister-in-law for hiring a bomoh, or a black magic practitioner, to cast a spell on his family.

After his marriage to Madam Smaelmeeral in 2002, Tharema grew increasingly suspicious of his sister-in-law. He said the family, all Muslims, objected to him being a Hindu.

Mr Pannirselvam, 41, a security coodinator, said that on his release from prison in February last year, he was surprised to find his friend drinking heavily. Mr Pannirselvam spent two years behind bars for rioting.

By then, Madam Smaelmeeral, 32, had walked out on Tharema and their two children, aged two and five.

Desperate to end the spell and save his marriage, Tharema consulted several bomohs but was impatient.

'I told him to give some time for the remedies to work but he wanted an immediate solution,' said Mr Pannirselvam.

On July 1 last year, a drunk Tharema met Madam Smaelmeeral near an apartment block in Stirling Road. At around 5 am, she fell 13 stories to her death.

Soon after, Tharema called for his friends to pick him up and they all headed back to Jurong West.

Mr Pannirselvam said that he had not noticed any blood stains on Tharema's clothes when he boarded the car at the Queenstown Swimming Complex or when he alighted at Jurong West.

The next day, Mr Pannirselvam said Tharema told him the couple had been quarrelling at a bus stop before ending up on the top floor of a block nearby.

All he could remember was trying to pull his wife to safety but said he lost his grip, Mr Pannirselvam testified.

In a statement to police soon after, Mr Pannirselvam declared that Tharema had admitted to throwing her over the balcony of a common walkway.

He told the court that during a seven-hour interview at the Police Cantonment Complex on July 2, a police officer said he knew of Mr Pannirselvam's previous conviction. He said he was warned to cooperate or he would be in trouble for his connections to a secret society.

Another officer said that since he had been with Tharema, police could detain him for six months for investigations, Mr Pannirselvam testified.

He later asked to correct the police statement but officers told him this was not necessary. They said he only needed to set the record straight when he took the stand during the trial, he testified.