The Sunanda Pushkar-Mehr Tarar Twitter row

New Delhi: Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, the wife of Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead at the five-star Leela Palace Hotel in Delhi on Friday night. Investigations are still on and an SDM inquiry has been ordered as the Delhi Police said the reason for her death is still unknown.

The death of Pushkar, 52, comes within 24 hours of her public spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. Pushkar had called Mehr Tarar an ISI agent and accused her of trying to create trouble in her marriage.

How it started

A series of bizarre tweets from Tharoor's accounthad led people to believe that his account was hacked. The tweets were supposedly addressed by Tarar to Tharoor. Following this was a spat between Pushkar and Tarar on Twitter.

Pushkar called Mehr Tarar an ISI agent and accused her of trying to create trouble in her marriage. She also said she would go to investigative agencies and get Tarar arrested.

Following this spate, Tharoor and Pushkar had to issue a joint statement on Thursday over the Twitter controversy involving them and Tarar. The two said in the statement said they were happily married and there's no trouble in their marriage.

"We are distressed by the unseemly controversy that has arisen about some unauthorised tweets from our Twitter accounts. Various distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Sunanda have appeared in the press. It appears that some personal and private comments responding to these unauthorised tweets -- comments that were not intended for publication -- have been misrepresented and led to some erroneous conclusions," the statement said.

Tarar had came out strongly against Sunanda's allegations against her. "This woman constantly says something on social media and then is allowed to get away. Why will I hack into her account and tweet against myself," she questioned. She even threatened to file a defamation case against Pushkar.

On Friday evening Tarar expressed her shock over the tragic turn of events.

"I just woke up and read this. I'm absolutely shocked. This is too awful for words. So tragic I don't know what to say. Rest in peace, Sunanda," she tweeted. "What the hell. Sunanda. Oh my God," said another tweet from her.

Sunanda had been diagnosed with Lupus and stomach TB. She had a son from a previous marriage and had been helping Tharoor with his election campaign.