A day after her father allegedly shot her dead, former state-level tennis player Radhika Yadav was cremated on Friday, July 11, 2025.
The 49-year-old Deepak Yadav was brought to court on Friday and placed under one-day police custody after confessing to the crime and telling police that he was made fun of for surviving on her tennis academy earnings.
According to the postmortem analysis by a board of three doctors, the 25-year-old was shot four times, three times in the back and once in the shoulder, police said. After that, her body was given to the family and brought to their nearby village of Wazirabad for final rituals.
As the young woman was cremated, there was a startled stillness and a lot of tears, according to a villager. Her brother Dheeraj lit the fire at the burial, which drew about 150 people, including her distraught family.
“The murder raised a lot of questions. One of the mourners remarked, “Everyone was shocked at how Deepak could have killed his daughter, the person he loved the most.”
What would have prompted the father to shoot his daughter in the back while she was preparing food in their posh Gurugram home in Sushant Lok? Did she run a tennis academy? Did she do a music video for it last year? Was it pride that was wounded? Or had it been something else?
As people processed the few information of the shocking death of the obviously accomplished woman who was poised for greatness, rumors began to circulate.
According to police sources, Deepak Yadav said that he shot Radhika because he was frequently made fun of for subsisting on her money. Additionally, police claimed in a statement that the father-daughter conflict stemmed from the tennis program Radhika maintained.
“Her father was not happy with it,” Sandeep Singh, a spokesman for the Gurugram police, stated.
He had repeatedly urged her to close it, but she refused. “He shot her because he was angry,” the statement continued.
According to police, they were looking into every potential aspect of the murder, including her mother’s actions at the time of the occurrence.
Manju Yadav, Radhika’s mother, was on the first floor of the house when the shooting occurred, according to a formal complaint filed by her uncle Kuldeep Yadav.
He claimed that while he and his family lived on the ground floor of the property in Sector 57, Deepak, Manju, and their daughter Radhika occupied the first floor.
Only the three were on the first floor when they were killed. He claimed that Dheeraj, Radhika’s brother, was not there.
According to the FIR, he heard a “loud explosion” at around 10.30 am on Thursday and hurried to the first floor.
“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.
“The ammunition from his licensed revolver, which was used in the crime, must be recovered. “We need to confirm the quantity of ammunition he purchased,” he stated.
“The accused owns land in a village near Pataudi,” the official responded when asked where the recovery must come from. From there, we must obtain the ammunition. As he exited the car outside the courthouse under police escort for the court hearing, the accused, dressed in a T-shirt and pants, had a towel over his head.
The waiting journalists barraged him with inquiries about why he killed his daughter. He was swiftly brought inside the court’s grounds, nevertheless.
“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.