Prasad murder: 'How can I tell the truth?'

Shivneel Kumar (left) and Bryne Permal flank a security guard in the High Court at Auckland.

Days after allegedly burning their friend to death, one man told his co-accused keeping their stories straight was "the only way we'll be saved", a court has been told.

Shivneel Kumar, 20, and Bryne Permal, 22, are on trial in the High Court at Auckland, charged with the murder of 21-year-old Shalvin Prasad, whose smouldering body was found on a rural South Auckland road on the morning of January 31, 2013.

The previous day, the victim withdrew his life savings of $30,050 - in $100 and $50 bills - from a Manukau bank while Kumar waited outside, the Crown says.

As police focused their attention on the two defendants, they were granted warrants to intercept their phone calls and to bug Kumar's lime green Holden Commodore.

In the days following the alleged murder, Permal and Kumar spoke briefly about meeting up, working out and playing computer games.

But a conversation the pair had in the car on the evening of February 11 took a different tone.

Constable Amit Prasad, who translated the hour-long discussion, read the transcript for the jury this morning.

"You know they say the case will be suppressed. No evidence will be found. There's no proof we burned it ... they don't have any evidence," Kumar said.

"Whatever happens, don't call or text me. Even after six months, don't talk about that. When this case gets suppressed, then when we change our phone numbers then we can talk. If you have to talk about money, we'll talk face to face."

While listening to the conversation in real time, police called Kumar to tell him they had found Mr Prasad's phone and they would need to speak to him soon.

When they hung up, he voiced his concerns to Permal.

"F***, if only the phone had not been found. I should've got rid of the phone properly," he said.

Permal suggested they should have thrown it into the sea or a sewer.

"Anyways, whatever's happened has happened. There's nothing dodgy on the phone," Kumar told him.

The transcript appears to show the defendant becoming more concerned about what he would tell police, now they had a record of the text messages between him and the victim.

"Whatever's happened, tell the truth," Permal said.

"How can I tell the truth?" Kumar replied.

Towards the end of the conversation, Kumar talked about the importance of a united front.

"Remember, the only way we'll be saved is if we say one thing," he said. "If our stories don't match up then they'll say something was wrong."

The trial before Justice Geoffrey Venning and a jury of six women and six men is scheduled to last another three weeks.