Radhika Yadav was shot by father while cooking breakfast for mother's birthday. Chilling details

Deepak Yadav, 51, allegedly shot his daughter Radhika Yadav, a state-level tennis player, four times in the back while she was cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

Updated on: Jul 12, 2025, 06:32:42 IST

ht_print | By Leena Dhankhar, Debashish Karmakar

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On the outside, the building looks like any other house in this posh corner of Gurugram.

Deepak Yadav, father of Radhika Yadav, shot her four times at their residence in Gurugram (Facebook/ANI)

A towering arched window pane dominates the three-storey facade. A green tarpaulin sheet dangles from the top, perhaps to shield against the punishing summer sun or monsoon drizzles. A white Thar stands in a narrow driveway, flanked by motorbikes.

But it is inside this house, in Gurugram’s upmarket Sector 57, that 51-year-old builder Deepak Yadav allegedly pumped four bullets into his daughter, tennis player Radhika Yadav, while she was cooking breakfast around 10.30 AM on Thursday.

Police said the victim was cooking a meal for her mother, Manju Yadav, who was celebrating her birthday.

The autopsy confirmed that Radhika was shot four times in the back.

“Four entry wounds in the back were found. All four pellets were retrieved from the body. There were no exit wounds. Her heart and lungs were pierced causing excessive blood loss resulting in the death,” said Dr Deepak Mathur, Gurugram civil hospital forensic wing in-charge.

Deepak has confessed to the crime, and the initial police investigation has hinted at a toxic cocktail of social pressure, patriarchal insecurities, and wounded ego as one of the motives behind the shocking crime. But the crime has also shaken one of India’s most prosperous pockets, where skyrocketing salaries and real-estate heft often hide an ugly underbelly of caustic social attitudes that are steeped in an aversion to modern life, especially women’s freedoms.

“When I used to go to Wazirabad village to get milk, people used to taunt me, saying that I live off my daughter’s earnings. Some people even questioned my daughter’s character. I told my daughter to close her tennis academy, but she refused. This situation kept bothering me as it hurt my dignity,” Deepak told the police during questioning, officials said.

“Because of this tension, I took out my licensed revolver, and when my daughter Radhika was cooking in the kitchen, I shot her from behind, hitting her waist. I have killed my daughter,” he has told the police, according to officials.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leena Dhankhar
Leena Dhankhar is Senior Editor and Bureau Chief, Gurugram, at Hindustan Times, where she has spent over 17 years chronicling the transformation of one of India's fastest-growing urban regions. From starting her career as a crime reporter to leading the Gurugram bureau, her journalism has been defined by investigative reporting, in-depth storytelling and an unwavering focus on public interest. Over nearly two decades, she has reported extensively across crime, politics, civic governance, elections, real estate, environment, courts, sports, education and entertainment, covering Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh and Palwal. Her reporting has exposed several major scams and systemic failures, including insurance frauds, waste management irregularities, illegal arms manufacturing units in Nuh, illegal mining in the Aravallis, organised crime networks and governance lapses affecting millions of residents. Known for her investigative work and exclusive stories, Leena has reported on high-impact national issues, including the Nicaragua charter flight carrying Indian migrants that was turned back amid allegations of human trafficking, exposing the growing network of illegal immigration rackets. Her work has also focused on gang wars, prison administration, juvenile crime, women and child protection systems, the functioning of the Juvenile Justice Board and Child Welfare Committee, and environmental challenges such as pollution, waterlogging and deteriorating civic infrastructure. Beyond hard news, Leena has extensively documented Haryana's rich heritage, forests and wildlife, bringing attention to the state's historical landmarks, biodiversity, conservation efforts and ecological challenges through immersive reportage and feature writing. Her journalism has consistently gone beyond breaking news. She has documented Gurugram's rapid urbanisation through long-form narratives and enterprise reporting on issues ranging from pothole-ridden roads, flooding and waste management to the changing social fabric of India's Millennium City. She also writes widely read feature columns, including The Outsider, Changemaker, and Concern for Gurugram, profiling people, places and ideas shaping the city's identity. Leena is the author of Gurugram School Murder, published by Juggernaut Books, a deeply reported account of one of India's most high-profile school murder investigations. She is currently working on her second book, an investigative work exploring some of India's most significant scams and fraud investigations. Beyond print journalism, she has expanded her storytelling through public speaking and digital media. She is a TEDx speaker and has produced podcasts exploring Gurugram's transformation, civic challenges and untold stories. Her work reflects a commitment to narrative journalism that combines rigorous reporting with compelling storytelling. A law graduate with an MBA in Human Resources, Leena brings a multidisciplinary perspective to her reporting, particularly on governance, public policy and legal affairs. She has travelled extensively across India to pursue investigative assignments, often reporting from remote locations and conflict-prone areas in search of stories that matter.Read More
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debashish Karmakar
Debashish Karmakar is a principal correspondent with the Hindustan Times, Gurugram bureau. He has a vast journalistic experience of almost 14 years of covering crime, court, power, transport, administration, weather and other beats while working across various organisations. He has been covering Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal and other districts of southern Haryana for more than four and a half years. He has produced several breaking and exclusive stories while reporting from the ground where he maintains a strong presence on a daily basis. He writes news articles which are hard-hitting and accurate. With his strong bureaucratic sources, he frequently writes stories to expose the failure of the system forcing authorities to take necessary course-corrective steps. Besides crime, important convictions and court orders, he also writes on human-angle stories, on power issues and challenges faced by the residents on a daily basis in Gurugram and neighbouring areas. In the past, he worked for media houses like The Times of India, where he extensively reported on important government matters and daily proceedings at the Patna High Court. He has also worked in the electronic media and had done ground coverage on the Kedarnath deluge that wrecked Uttarakhand in 2013.Read More

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