Gurugram: Former state-level tennis player Radhika Yadav was cremated Friday evening, a day after her father allegedly shot her dead at point-blank range, bringing the curtains down on a life cut short cruelly and leaving behind questions aplenty.
Deepak Yadav, 49, who confessed to the crime and told police he was taunted for living off her income from a tennis academy, was produced in court Friday and remanded to one-day police custody.
The 25-year-old received four bullets, three in the back and one in the shoulder, according to the postmortem report by a board of three doctors, said police. That done, her body was handed over to the family and taken for last rites to the family’s village in Wazirabad close by.
There was stunned silence and many tears too as the young woman was cremated, said a villager. About 150 people, including her grieving family, attended the funeral with her brother Dheeraj lighting the pyre.
“There were many questions about the murder. Everyone was surprised how Deepak could have killed his daughter, the one he loved the most,” said one of the mourners.
What could have led the father to pump bullets into his daughter’s back while she was cooking in their home in upscale Sushant Lok in Gurugram? Was it the tennis academy she ran? Was it a music video she made last year? Was it wounded pride? Or was it something else entirely?
The speculation swirled as people took in the scant details of the shock murder of the clearly successful woman set to go places.
Deepak Yadav confessed he shot Radhika because he was often mocked for living off her income, police sources said. Police also issued a statement claiming the tennis academy Radhika ran was the bone of contention between father and daughter.
“Her father was not happy with it,” Gurugram police spokesperson Sandeep Singh said.
“On many occasions, he had told her to shut it, but she did not agree. Angered, he shot her,” the spokesperson added.
The accused, who police said was depressed for the last 15 days, also felt he was financially well off and had good rental income so there was no need for his daughter to run an academy.
Radhika had appeared in a romantic music video in 2024 alongside an independent artist. According to sources, this too could have triggered tensions at home.
Police officials said they were investigating all possible angles in the murder, including what her mother was doing when the incident occurred.
According to an FIR based on the complaint of her uncle Kuldeep Yadav, Radhika’s mother Manju Yadav was present on the first floor of the house when the shooting took place.
He said Deepak, Manju and daughter Radhika lived on the first floor of the house in Sector 57 while he lived on the ground floor along with his family.
At the time of the killing, only the three were on the first floor. Radhika’s brother Dheeraj was not present, he said.
On Thursday, around 10.30 am, he suddenly heard a “loud explosion” and rushed to the first floor, the FIR stated.
“I saw my niece Radhika lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, and the revolver was found in the drawing room. My son, Piyush Yadav, also rushed to the first floor. Both of us picked up Radhika and rushed her in our car to Asia Maringo Hospital in Sector 56 where doctors declared her dead,” the uncle said in his statement.
It was earlier said the mother was on the ground floor, and she rushed upstairs after hearing the gunshots, which, she said, sounded like a pressure cooker blast.
“My niece was a very good tennis player, and she had won several trophies. I am surprised why she was murdered. My brother has a licensed .32 bore revolver. It was lying there,” the former tennis player’s uncle told police.
A battery of camerapersons and reporters waited as Deepak Yadav was produced in court on Friday. A police official told reporters that they had sought a two-day remand of the accused.
“We have to recover the ammunition of his licensed revolver (used in the crime). We have to verify how much ammunition he had procured,” he said.
Asked from where the recovery has to be made, the official said, “The accused owns land in a village near Pataudi. We have to get the ammunition from there.”
The accused, wearing a T-shirt and trousers, had his head covered with a towel as he stepped out of the vehicle near the court complex under police escort for the court appearance.
He faced a volley of questions from the waiting media, wanting to know why he killed his daughter. However, he was quickly taken inside the court premises.
When he came out of court after the hearing, the towel was off. He faced the same question, and again was quickly escorted by the police to the vehicle.
According to the All India Tennis Association (AITA) website, Radhika played tournaments earlier this year in Indore and Kuala Lumpur, but these were in the qualifying events and not the main draw. She was ranked 1999 by the International Tennis Federation.
She achieved the highest All India Tennis Association (AITA) Under-18 Ranking of 75 and AITA women’s singles ranking of 35.
AITA official Anil Dhupar expressed grief and shock over the incident.
“It’s really sad and unfortunate. She came to Indore to play W35 this year. In her junior days, she was very promising. She always wanted to start an academy to create future players and enquired how to go about it. It’s really shocking to know what has happened,” he said.
Suman Kapur, president of the Haryana Tennis Association (HTA), said, “During the 2023 National Games, she was with the Haryana team. After that, she did not make the state team.
“We do not know about her academy… it was not registered with the HTA. She did not host any tournaments at her centre,” Kapur said.
PTI
