Indian tennis player Radhika Yadav, 25, was shot dead by her father, Deepak Yadav, at their residence in Gurugram on Thursday afternoon. Radhika was part of the ITF singles and doubles circuit before taking up coaching
The Gurugram Police said they were informed by a private hospital in the city that a young woman had died due to bullet injuries, and that when they reached the hospital, they only found Radhika’s uncle Kuldeep Yadav, and not her parents.
According to the FIR filed – on the charge of murder – at the Gurugram Sector 56 police station after Kuldeep’s complaint, Deepak was upset with his daughter for continuing to run a tennis academy in the city despite his repeated objections.
According to the ITF website, Radhika had played 36 singles matches and 7 doubles matches under the aegis of the ITF in her career. She last played singles in March 2024, and doubles in June 2023. Although it’s been more than a year since her last international tournament, it has been established that she had been a coach at her academy in Gurugram, which eventually was the subject of the disagreement between her and her father.
“He (Deepak) had been upset for a while as he was being taunted by locals over his daughter’s income. He was troubled by their remarks – they would keep saying the house is running on her money, and he is too dependent on that. He had asked her (Radhika) several times earlier to stop working at the academy, but she refused. He could not take it anymore,” the Station House Officer Inspector Vinod Kumar told The Indian Express.
The police added that Deepak’s income came from the rent for a couple of small properties that he owned.
NDTV quoted Deepak admitting his crime to the police. He said that he shot her three times from behind, because she refused to close her academy upon being told to do so.
