Madam Smaelmeeral Abdul Aziz, was found dead at the foot of Block 181 Stirling Road at 4.40am and her 40-year-old husband, Tharema Vejayan Govindsamy, is now on trial for murdering her.

In the High Court on Monday, her cousin and best friend, Madam Mathinah Baham Samsudeen, testified that the couple's families never approved of the Hindu-Muslim marriage.

'In the begininning, they were deeply in love and very happy' said the 34-year-old customer service officer.

The couple, who married in 2002 after five months of courtship, had their first child in 2003.

Madam Smaelmeeral wanted to abort the second child - a daughter - because of financial contraints but was disuaded by Tharema.

Instead of doing his part, Tharema started skipping work and stopped supporting the family.

The marriage started to unravel after Madam Smaelmeeral found him naked with another woman in bed in their flat in 2006.

Tharema left home for three days.

When he returned, he claimed that he had ended the affair but his wife confided in Madam Mathinah that she had found strands of another woman's hair in her flat.

Confronted by his wife, Tharema punched and kicked her and slammed her against the wall, the court heard.

He would beat her up as if she was a man, she had told her friend.

On the fateful evening before her death, Madam Mathinah said that she and Madam Smaelmeeral went clubbing with another friend.

They met at Lavender MRT station at 10pm and while walking to a pub nearby, Madam Smaelmeeral told her that her sister had placed a hex on her marriage.

Madam Mathinah said that she had heard this before as the couple had consulted 'bomohs' or black magic practitioners to find out who had placed the curse on them.

But Madam Smaelmeeral's sister Hametah Abdul Aziz, 42, denied consulting bomohs when she testified in Aug.

She told the court then that the family had objected to Tharema because he had assaulted her sister before the marriage.

Asked to describe Madam Smaelmeeral, Madam Mathinah broke down, saying 'Meera was an outgoing person and very hardworking but she cannot keep things to herself.'

'She had to confront issues and when she did this with Tharema, he would beat her up.'

Madam Mathinah revealed that as Madam Smaelmeeral was about to leave for her uncle's flat where she was staying, she told her friend that although she was in the process of divorcing Tharena, she was still in love with him and was willing to take him back.

Tharema's lawyers will argue that he was suffering from diminished responsilbility because of his suspicions that he was under a curse.

The trial continues.