IN a friend's car shortly after his wife had fallen to her death in July last year, Tharema Vejayan Govindasamy was blabbering and used the Malay word 'ajar', a High Court heard on Wednesday.

Prosecution witness Abdul Razak P. Maudu, 43, said that he understood it to mean teaching someone a lesson and had feared that Tharema might have assaulted wife Smaelmeeral Abdul Aziz, 32.

The body of the factory worker was found at the foot of Block 181 Stirling Road at about 4.40am.

She was last seen returning from a girls' night out to her uncle's flat in that area. At the same time, Tharema was celebrating Mr Abdul Razak's birthday at an Orchard Road pub.

Although she was estranged from Tharema and had started divorce proceedings, she called to tell Mr Abdul Razak at 3am, saying she would be waiting for Tharema at the Queenstown MRT station.

She had sounded 'tipsy', he said.

Mr Abdul Razak, who said that he does not drink, then drove Tharema there.

He told Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo that Tharema was then slurring.

Tharema got off near the MRT station and Mr Abdul Razak headed back to the pub.

An hour later, he picked up Tharema to give him a lift home.

A mutual friend Pannirselvam Anthonisamy was also in the car then.

Mr Abdul Razak said that he dropped off Tharema in Jurong West and then went for breakfast with Mr Pannirselvam.

Sometime in the afternoon of the same day, he received a call that the police wanted to meet him.

Before heading there, he and Mr Pannirselvam went to meet Tharema, who told them that he had a fight with his wife.

He said he had taken his wife up a block of flats but could not remember what happened there.

He told Mr Abdul Razak in Tamil that he did not know whether he had 'let go of her or put her down.'

Mr Abdul Razak said that he did not understand the words at that time but now thinks it meant that Tharema did not know whether he had lost his grip on her or if he had thrown her down from the 13th floor.

Mr Abdul Razak said that he felt sad as he realised something serious had happened. He later found out at the Police Cantonment Complex that she was dead.

The businessman, who manages a local delivery firm, has known Tharema for seven years and had hired him off and on, paying him about $50 a day.

He said that Tharema started drinking from mid 2006 after his marriage soured, partly because his wife insisted on working the night shift.

Tharema also suspected her of cheating on him.

Her friends, who testified earlier, had told the court that Madam Smaelmeeral have had two extra-marital affairs.

Mr Pannisrselvam is expected to testify on Thursday.