Washington: An Indian engineer is in an American jail on the charges of killing his landlord with whose wife he was allegedly having an affair.

Ashwani K Shamlodhiya, 29, who worked at Lucent Technologies in Naperville, Chicago, is accused of attacking his landlord Sichang 'Michael' Li with a hammer in West Chicago on Sept 11, 2001.

Li's bludgeoned body was found under a pile of clothing in the basement of his house after fire-fighters extinguished an arson fire, 'The Daily Herald' of Chicago reported.

Shamlodhiya's trial case, which is being dubbed as a crime of passion, opened on Thursday (Apr 15, 2004) in DuPage County. He could face the rest of his life in prison if the jury convicts him of first-degree murder and arson.

According to prosecutor Alex McGimpsey, "he (Shamlodhiya) deliberately set two fires to try to cover up the murder. Little did fire-fighters know when they responded to what they thought was a fire that it actually was a crime scene."

As for motive, prosecutors said Shamlodhiya had been having an affair with Li's wife.

Wen "Susan" Li will testify about the sexual relationship next week.

Defence attorney Joseph Laraia declined to lay out his case during an opening statement. He is expected, though, to argue Shamlodhiya killed Li in self-defence after the landlord attacked the defendant.

However, prosecutors maintain Shamlodhiya never claimed self-defence during his many conversations with police. In fact, the defendant in a videotaped re-enactment told police a burglar broke into the home and knocked him unconscious, they said.

Prosecutors said the engineer told police he awoke in the basement after flames had spread throughout the house.

Trapped, Shamlodhiya busted out a basement window and screamed for help.

A construction crew working across the street in the Cornerstone Lakes subdivision came to his rescue.

The men testified that Shamlodhiya first told them his landlord attacked him. He later changed his story, the men testified, and mentioned the intruder.