A WOMAN obsessed by hatred for her former husband's new wife was, along with the man she hired to help her, jailed for life for her murder, at the High Court in Glasgow, yesterday.

The couple killed Mrs Rajwinder Bassi, 32, who was 33 weeks' pregnant, with a knife on a Sikh holy day known as a day for revenge.

Returning a majority verdict after the four-week trial, the jury convicted Gurmit Bassi, 33, of Conan Court, Cambuslang, Glasgow, and Christopher Jones, 25, of Lilybank Avenue, also Cambuslang, of murdering Mrs Rajwinder Bassi by slashing and stabbing her 30 times before cutting her throat.

In defences during the four-week trial they blamed each other for the murder, Bassi also claiming her ex-husband hired Jones as the killer and arranged for her 14-year-old son to let him into the flat.

Judge Lord Marnoch told Bassi and Jones: ''By any standards this was a most brutal murder of a woman whose only offence was to marry the former husband of you, Bassi, and its brutality was made all the worse by the fact the deceased was carrying an unborn child of 33 weeks.

''The crime was one which would turn the stomach of any decent citizen.''

Defence counsel Gordon Jackson, QC, said Bassi had been living in a ''cauldron of mental pressure'' because of her domestic situation.

Mr Donald Findlay, QC, for Jones, said that examination had shown he was an ''immature young man who was susceptible to exploitation by others''.

He said Jones had never been in trouble before and it was not known what part, if any, he had played in the killing.

His brother, Mr Charles Jones, who manages the Sun pub in Cambuslang, said later: ''There is no way we believe that Christopher could be capable of such a crime.

''He was the fall guy and was obviously sucked into being at the scene of the crime by this evil woman.''

The court was told how the marriage tangle of Bassi's former husband, Mr Harbhej Bassi, 36, led to tragedy.

For months before the killing, he had been sleeping with both women. His first wife in her home in Cambuslang, and his new wife in their flat in Woodlands Drive, Charing Cross, Glasgow, the scene of the murder on Monday, April 13 this year.

Gurmit Bassi met her future husband on a flight to India, years earlier, when Mr Bassi was being deported from the UK as an illegal immigrant. She had undergone an arranged marriage when she was 20, but divorced her first husband in Bradford, for mental cruelty.

After marrying in the Punjab in 1987, Mr Bassi was allowed into Britain and worked as a waiter before opening the Royal Ashoka restaurant, in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire.

His wife suffered depression and when he tried to leave her she threatened to kill herself and their two sons.

After divorcing her in 1992, he met and married his second wife, in the Punjab in l997, but continued to sleep with both women.

He told Bassi of his marriage and his wife's pregnancy and she became mentally unwell, and her two sons went to live with him and his wife just weeks before the killing.

Bassi began openly looking for a ''hit-man'', even asking two local taxi drivers if they knew anyone.

Finally, she got Jones, a former butcher who worked in a general store near her home, to be her accomplice.

Giving evidence, her 14-year-old son said he received a telephone call on the night of the murder and went down the stairs to hand his mother the keys of the flat.

At first he said Jones went upstairs alone but, after being warned about perjury, he agreed that both accused went up.

The boy claimed his mother told him she was giving Jones #1000 to get rid of his step-mother's baby.

Other members of the household were at the Sikh Temple celebrating the Holy Day of Basaki, and Mr Bassi was at his restaurant, when both accused arrived around 9.30pm.

An Asian neighbour heard the pregnant woman cry out in Punjabi: ''Leave me alone you dog. I am going to die. Save me.''

Asked by Advocate-depute Samuel Cathcart, prosecuting, if the word shouted for ''you dog'' applied to both males and females, the witness said: ''No, only males.''

Jones claimed Bassi alone murdered the woman and that he was unaware what was to happen in the flat, and that his clothes were covered in blood when he collapsed with shock beside the dying woman.

The jury dismissed their claims and found them both equally guilty of murder.

Mr Jackson said there was a ''dark and murky background to the murder'' which involved his client's ex-husband remarrying and receiving a ''large dowry'' from his new wife's relatives in India.

The victim's mother, Mrs Gurdev Kaur, 65, who flew 4000 miles from the Punjab for the trial, told the judge: ''I want to see the face of the woman who murdered my daughter.''

After the verdict, Mr Bassi said: ''The jury's verdict clears my name of these nasty allegations that I somehow had something to do with the murder.''