It now appears that all was not well between Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda Pushkar days before her mysterious death despite their joint statement to the contrary.

According to a statement by senior journalist Nalini Singh, recorded before a subdivisional magistrate (SDM), the couple had been squabbling for a week before Pushkar's death and had also got into scuffles over Tharoor's alleged affair with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar.

Senior journalist Nalini Singh said Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar had been fighting for a week before her death. Senior journalist Nalini Singh said Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar had been fighting for a week before her death.

Pushkar had got engaged in a Twitter spat with Tarar over the alleged affair just days before her death. Singh had initially made the verbal statement before the SDM, but she later recorded her statement. "Sunanda called me at 12.10 am on January 17. The call lasted around seven minutes and the conversation was about that (Tharoor's alleged affair). She was very distraught, crying but she steadied herself in the middle," Singh told the SDM.

Emails She also said they discussed about the emails exchanged between Tharoor and Tarar. "She (Pushkar) was under the impression that she was very ill. she told me that she had been diagnosed with stomach TB.

It was late at night and maybe she said it would be cancer now," Singh added. Interestingly, Pushkar's caretaker Narayan also claimed before the SDM that the couple had been quarrelling for days. "I had gone along with the couple to Thiruvananthapuram where they got into a heated argument over Tarar. We later returned on 15 January afternoon but on the way back they again started fighting," Narayan told the SDM. He also said on January 16 night the couple had an ugly spat over Tharoor's alleged relationship with Tarar. The quarrel continued till 4.30 am on Friday.

The caretaker also said that the injury marks on Pushkar's body could be due to a physical struggle.