An Indian man who cut his wife’s throat eight times with a box cutter and left her bleeding to death in their western Sydney home was caught in a “triangle of desperation” that included fear of deportation, the defence in his murder trial has claimed.

But the prosecution says 24-year-old Chamanjot Singh killed his wife, Manpreet Kaur, because he was jealous of the friendships and social ties she had formed in her adopted country.