On trial for murdering his former lover, erstwhile wrestling and show promoter Shane Jaipal said that when the dying woman mentioned his name when asked who had set her alight, she was probably calling for his help.

Jaipal, who says he was in Umtata on the day of the murder, has pleaded not guilty before Justice Hillary Squires, presiding over a circuit court hearing in Pinetown, to murdering Argentina Loutsaris.

It is alleged he forced her car off the road, doused her with petrol and set her alight on October 21, 1997. She died a few hours later.

State advocate Santhos Manilall asked Jaipal why Loutsaris said, "Shane Jaipal, who else?" when her eldest son, Victor Loutsaris, asked her who had burnt her just before she was taken to hospital.

"But she was not calling for your help, she implicated you," said Manilall.

"Well, I don't know," Jaipal said.

Testifying for the defence, Dr Ganesh Perumal, a forensic pathologist, said it seemed Loutsaris's mental faculties were "intact" when she spoke to her son.

Jaipal's fingerprint was found on the driver's door window of the Opel Monza, which Loutsaris was driving when she was killed. She had borrowed the vehicle the day before the incident.

Jaipal said he might have touched the window when Loutsaris asked him to fix it for her at about 9.30pm on the night of October 20, 1997.

However, Durban advocate Shan Govender, from whom she borrowed the car, earlier testified that he only handed the vehicle to Loutsaris at 4am on October 21.

Jaipal said Govender's evidence was "completely fabricated".

Two witnesses said they saw Jaipal driving a white Nissan 1400 bakkie - the vehicle another witness said Loutsaris's murderer was driving - before the dousing and burning.

Jaipal denied he had ever been in a bakkie of that type, but said he had a Volkswagen Passat, which looked like a bakkie "from a distance" or at night.

He said court documents found in a white Nissan 1400 bakkie, and on which his name was listed as a respondent, did not belong to him but to the listed applicant, a Vishnu Purmasher. He denied ever seeing the papers.

He admitted that he once argued with Loutsaris about money and "gave her a few smacks", but said he knew nothing of the peace order against him, which Loutsaris obtained.

He said her son, Loutsaris, "hated" him and could have influenced his mother to seek the order.

The hearing continues. 

With acknowledgements to Sue Blaine and Independent Online.