New Delhi: Tennis player Radhika Yadav, 25, was cooking in the kitchen when her father allegedly shot her dead with his licensed gun at their home in Gurugram around 10.30 am Thursday.
It was her mother’s birthday, and Radhika wanted to make her favourite food, more so because she was down with fever and resting in her room, according to police officers and family relatives present at the house.
Her father, Deepak Yadav, pumped three bullets into Radhika’s waist, the police have recorded in his statement confessing that he felt “insulted” over jibes from acquaintances that he was benefiting from the income of his daughter. The confession is detailed in the FIR, a copy of which ThePrint has seen.
Tennis was dear to Radhika, police officers privy to the case told ThePrint, adding that she had a successful career playing for Haryana at the national-level and travelled across the country. Her tennis dreams had suffered a setback due to a shoulder injury, but she went on to set up an academy in Gurugram a year ago to coach children in the game.
The academy had turned out to be sore point with her father, who had asked her to shut it but she did not listen. This led to a fractured relationship between the two, said the officers.
Deepak admitted to nursing a grudge against Radhika in his confession. While he had shifted to Gurugram with his family, he continued to buy milk from his native village of Wazirabad, located a few kilometres away.
During one of those trips to take milk from the village, an acquaintance hurled a jibe about Deepak living off his daughter’s income. Such jibes continued and had prompted him to ask Radhika to close her tennis academy, said the police.
“They also used to question my daughter’s character. I asked my daughter to close her academy, but she refused to do so. I grew tense about it as it was an insult to my dignity,” Deepak told the police, as documented in the FIR. “Because of this tension, I pulled out my licensed gun and shot my daughter at her waist thrice when she was cooking in the kitchen.”
Deepak is currently in custody and the police have booked him under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita as well as Section 27 (3) of the Arms Act, 1959, that deals with prohibited acts using a weapon.
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‘This was a mistake’
The G block of Gurugram’s Sector 57 wore a deserted look Thursday evening. Residents in the neighbourhood were, however, quick to identify the two-storey residential building belonging to the Yadavs.
A family member came out of the building, requesting that the media leave them with their “dignity”.
“Bahut beizzati ho gayi hai hamari, ab aur mat karo. Ek galti ho gayi (we have already been insulted enough, please stop now. This was a mistake),” said a young man in his 20s, who was wearing a mask, possibly to avoid being identified.
The gruesome killing has left the joint family in shock and disbelief.
In his statement to the police, Radhika’s uncle Kuldeep Yadav said he was sitting on the ground floor of the two-storey house that he co-owns with his brother when he heard a loud boom from the first floor in the morning.
The floor is occupied by his elder brother Deepak, and his family, which includes his wife, daughter and son. The scene there left Kuldeep in shock. He said he saw his niece Radhika lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, while he could spot the revolver used in the crime in the drawing room.
Kuldeep and his son took Radhika to the nearby Marengo Asia Hospital, where she was declared brought dead.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Kumar said the police were informed about the incident by the hospital. A team from the forensic laboratory subsequently visited the house.
“My niece Radhika was a tremendous tennis player and had brought several awards home,” Kuldeep said in his statement to the police that formed the basis of the FIR against his brother.
According to the police, Deepak was self-employed along with his brother and son in the business of real estate and rentals in Gurugram. He had been a massive beneficiary of the government’s acquisition of land in Wazirabad around two decades ago.
As the influx of money increased in the family, Deepak saw the need for a gun that was issued with a licence in his name, said the police, adding that no misadventure had been reported against him concerning his .32 bore revolver earlier.
When Kuldeep told the police that only Deepak and his wife Manju were present on the first floor at the time of murder, the police had only two suspects. Manju refused to give a statement, citing ill health and her presence in another room at the time of the incident. Deepak gave in during the sustained interrogation at his house, they said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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