NEW DELHI: The Pakistani woman journalist caught at the centre of a marital discord between an Indian minister and his wife, who died of unnatural causes on Friday, was quoted on Sunday as denying any role in the tragedy.

Mehr Tarar was quoted by several Indian news outfits as telling a Pakistani channel that she had met Indian Minister Shashi Tharoor only twice – in April in India for an interview and in June last year in Dubai.

“There were a lot of people present there,” the 45-year-old Lahore-based journalist said, wondering why Sunanda Pushkar, Mr Tharoor’s Kashmir Pandit wife, might have suspected her of any wrongdoing.

“When I wrote an article that mentioned him, his wife probably did not like that another woman whom she did not know praised him so much. So she asked him to stop talking to me,” Ms Tarar was quoted as saying.

“Despite that he (Tharoor) kept following me on Twitter after which she said stop following her (Tarar) on Twitter.”

Ms Tarar said Pushkar first attacked her after an interview she did with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

“She (Pushkar) tweeted saying why has our CM spoken to a Pakistani journalist. First Pakistan sends Army and then sends journalist. She started fighting with me,” Ms Tarar said.

“I don’t know why she had a problem about me talking to her husband over phone or email. The talks I had with him is something that I can talk with anyone and anywhere in the world,” she said before she went on an all-out attack on Pushkar.

“Have you googled? You will find that problems emerged in their marriage since May and June. I was not involved in their life. At that time, she didn’t know me nor was she blaming me for anything.

“Google their names and you will see what will appear. ‘Marriage is about to break’. ‘Trouble in paradise’. ‘Fairytale is over’. News have been appearing about their marriage for long.”

Her comments came as the bereaved minister wrote to Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde pleading for a fast track probe into the death of his wife who, according to doctors who carried out the autopsy, had met with a sudden and unnatural death.

Her body was found in her room in a posh hotel on Friday. She had reportedly checked in there on Wednesday.

Mr Tharoor, who had apparently checked into the same hotel on Thursday and spent much of Friday at the Congress party session in Delhi, reported the death to the police when he returned to the hotel at 8pm after being told that his wife was not opening the door. She was last seen alive at about 3.30pm, reports say.

On Sunday the minister recorded his statement before the Sub-Divisional Magistrate who is investigating the death of his wife under mysterious circumstances at the five-star hotel here.

In his letter to Home Minister Shinde, Mr Tharoor offered his full cooperation in the probe into the death of his wife and said he was “horrified to read the reckless speculation rampant” in the media.

In the letter, Mr Tharoor said the relevant authorities be asked to expedite the investigation and come to a rapid conclusion so that the truth emerged at the earliest regarding Sunanda’s death.

The doctors, who conducted the post-mortem on Saturday, had said she died a “sudden unnatural death” and her body bore several injury marks.

Pushkar had accused Ms Tarar of “stalking” her husband and trying to “break” her marriage when she was away for medical treatment.