The mother of an Indian woman murdered in Auckland last year says justice through the court system has not made the loss any easier to bear.
Chitralekha Ramakrishnan, 32, had her throat slit by her husband, Laxman Rajamani, 36, on January 13 last year.
Last month Rajamani, an accounts managerat American Express in Auckland, was jailed for life, with a non-parole period of 12 years.
P.V. Ramakrishnan, 71, Chitra-lekha's father, told the Mumbai newspaper Mid-Day: "I have no enmity against Rajamani, nor do I have any feelings of revenge against him. The law has taken its course."
But his wife, Sharda Ramakrishnan, 65, said: "We were unable to understand Rajamani's behaviour, as we chose him.
"It hurts more when we think about how he tortured her for one whole year. After Chitralekha's murder, I see her everywhere in the house," she told the newspaper. "I can't forget her.
"Rajamani often apologised after hitting Chitralekha. Just a day before he killed her, he called me and said that he had quit all his vices - liquor and drugs.
"And the next day he killed her in cold blood."
Chitralekha's sister Uttara, an insurance worker, said: "Rajamani had kept her body in the house for two days and tried to erase proofs.
"Her face was decomposed beyond recognition when I reached Auckland to collect her body. I spent $5000 for making her look good even in death."
She said the family had only one photograph of Chitralekha because all their photo albums were swept away in floods in July last year.
In a video statement to the police, Rajamani admitted the killing but said he was provoked.
He said she was planning to move out and live with a man from Pakistan.
"The problem was she was giving her body, smile, touch to a man from an enemy country," he told the High Court at Auckland. "I thought she was a national traitor."
