A MAN who slashed his wife 35 times with a meat cleaver in a jealous rage will spend the next 22 years behind bars.

Parminder Singh’s marriage to dancer and choreographer Nikita Chawla collapsed, resulting in her murder in the couple’s Brunswick apartment on January 9.

The pair secretly married in September 2011 and before her death, Ms Chawla confided to friends that she was planning to end the marriage.

In January when Singh, 30, was visiting India, Ms Chawla, 23, went on dates with a co-worker and exchanged selfies with him — it’s believed Singh later found them on her phone.

In a chilling call to triple-0 after the murder, Singh admits to brutally killing his wife.

He told the operator somebody needed to come and collect the dead body and the operator transferred him to a police sergeant, who asked him how he was.

“Not good mate, not good mate. I cut my wife’s throat. I killed her,” Singh told the sergeant.

“She has been cheating on me.”

Police found Ms Chawla’s body in the couple’s bedroom with significant stab and chop wounds and a bloodied meat cleaver nearby.

Singh was ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years by Victorian Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry on Thursday after pleading guilty to the murder in October.

Singh, who was preoccupied with jealousy and betrayal when he murdered his wife, showed no remorse for what he had done.

Justice Lasry said the killing was an exercise in control to ensure Ms Chawla did not share her life with anyone else.

Following his arrest, Singh told police he had suffered a sort of “blackout” and had seen photos on Ms Chawla’s phone.

Justice Lasry said Singh did not seem to understand that nothing that happened in the days leading up to the killing could excuse what he did, and that he acted with some degree of vengeance and control.

The crime was an extreme example of domestic violence, Justice Lasry said.

“You murdered someone you professed to love,” he said.

“You murdered someone who was entirely entitled to end her marriage with you.”

Singh did not respond when the sentence was handed down.