Witness tells of attacks by her husband

Complainant Renu Singh told jurors she believed she was suffocating in a bad dream but after an initial struggle she opened her eyes and saw her husband.

"He was so strong, he was so strong," Dr Singh said.

"He was strangulating my neck ... it was immense pressure, I could not breathe.

"I just felt I'm dying, I'm not going to survive anymore."

Dr Singh, 30, repeatedly sobbed, blew her nose, buried her face in her hands and sunk into her seat during her evidence-in-chief in the Supreme Court in Launceston.

Earlier, she told jurors of how she moved to Australia to live with Mr Singh, who instructed her to take out a $700,000 life insurance policy and wanted assets in India they could only afford with loans and her father's money.

Dr Singh said she would have brought "shame" upon her parents if they knew how Mr Singh abused her during their many arguments about money, including choking her for almost 30 seconds in Hobart in mid-2013.

Lokendra Singh, 30, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

The Crown has argued Mr Singh used a serrated kitchen knife to cut his wife's neck three times at Newnham on February 11, 2014.

Dr Singh, answering questions from prosecutor Jackie Hartnett, said that on the night her husband also smothered her with a pillow and pushed her deep into the mattress so she could not breathe.

She said Mr Singh dragged her to the edge of the bed and her head was hanging at the edge of the bed as he continued to strangle her.

Dr Singh said her husband later released his grip and told her "everything is finished, this is the end".

She said Mr Singh then produced a knife and asked her to stab him if she wanted him to call triple-zero, but she refused and begged for her life.

"He was trying to pretend to stab himself but he did not," Dr Singh said.

The trial, before Justice Robert Pearce, continues.