A woman has denied killing her businessman lover, with her toy-boy and his brothers.

Restaurant owner Tahir Butt was allegedly strangled with a telephone cord by Aruna Joshi's new boyfriend, car mechanic Manoj Mistry, 36, who, with his brothers, Kiran, 28, and Millian, 31, drove him to a country lane where they torched his body in the back of his car, the Old Bailey heard on Monday.

But Joshi, a sari seller, insisted she was still deeply in love with Mr Butt, 49, and was "just friends" with Manoj until after the older man's death. She told how she met Mr Butt, a married father-of-two of Maple Avenue, South Harrrow, when he was working as a minicab driver in the mid 1980s.

"I started loving him and we became close and closer," she said. She admitted she had a sexual relationship with one of Mr Butt's friends before falling for Manoj, whom she met in a temple in Wembley in 1998. Mr Butt knew of her fling, but did not mind, she said.

Asked by her barrister if they had embarked upon an intimate relationship by the time of Mr Butt's death in 1999, Joshi replied: "No. We were just friends. There was nothing when Tahir was still alive. After Tahir's death we spoke that we would marry."

Shesaid that on the night of Mr Butt's death, she was bedridden with food poisoning.

It is alleged that on March 17,1999, Joshi arranged for Mr Butt, who owned the Korai Queen restaurant at Wembley Triangle and managed a troupe of dancing girls, to go to her home in Dagmar Avenue, Wembley.

There, he was killed by Manoj Mistry, bundled into his own car and driven to Hilfield Lane, Aldenham, where the four-wheel drive vehicle with the body inside was set alight. Mr Butt's charred remains were found later that night.

After Mr Butt's death, the Mistry brothers allegedly sent letters to his widow, Rafia, claiming the murder was over a debt arising from a drugs and arms deal. One of the brothers is said to have phoned to threaten Mrs Butt and her children if £50,000 was not paid.

For more than three years, the plan seemed to have worked, the court heard. But when DNA samples from saliva were found on the stamps of the letters, the brothers were arrested.

Joshi's son told police he was in bed on the night of Mr Butt's death and heard a furious row downstairs. He said he heard Manoj's bellowing voice and later his mother told him Mr Butt was dead.

The brothers, all of Eaton Avenue, Wembley, and Joshi all deny murder and perverting the course of justice between March,16 and July, 31, 1999, by assisting in the disposal of the body and communicating by phone and letter to mislead as to the true nature of Mr Butt's death.

The trial continues.