Beijing, Jan 30 (IANS): A man in northeast China's Heilongjiang province was executed Friday for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, in collusion with his pregnant wife.

Bai Yunjiang was put to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Jiamusi city after the Supreme People's Court approved the death penalty, Xinhua news agency reported.

In November, 2014, the Higher People's Court of Heilongjiang Province rejected the couple's appeals and upheld the sentences of the city court which sentenced Bai to death and his wife Tan Beibei to life imprisonment for intentional homicide, rape and robbery.

On July 24, 2013, Tan, who was pregnant at the time, lured the girl, identified as Hu, to their home by pretending to have pregnancy complications.

The couple then gave the teenager a yoghurt drink spiked with Clonazepam, a kind of sedative, and attempted to rape her. They were unsuccessful, but killed the girl anyway and buried her body, the court said.

Tan said her husband was aware that she had several extra-marital affairs and the idea to acquire a young girl for her husband's pleasure had emerged out of guilt.

The couple were found to have previously failed in two similar attacks -- one, the attempted rape of one of their daughter's classmates in June, 2013, and the other an attempted robbery and murder of one of Bai's former classmates in mid-July, 2013.