Former tennis player Radhika Yadav’s best friend Himaanshika Singh Rajput claimed in a video that Radhika’s parents were always under “societal pressure.” She also called them “orthodox” and said they shamed Radhika for wearing shorts.
Himaanshika posted two videos on Instagram on Saturday, days after Radhika was shot dead by her father at their Gurugram residence.
One of those videos showed several pictures and clips of Radhila with her friend Himaanshika. The music “The Hanging Tree (feat. Jennifer Lawrence)” played in the background.
‘Truth Part 1’
In another video, Himaanshika shared Radhika’s ordeal. The video also has ‘Part 1’ written on it.
Himaanshika accused Radhika’s father, Deepak Yadav, of controlling behaviour. She said Radhika’s parents “shamed her for her for wearing shorts, for talking to boys, for living life on her own terms.”
Himaanshika added that Radhika’s were always under “societal pressured” and were affected by “log kya kahenge [What will people day].”
“They couldn’t stand to see her independent,” Himaanshika said, adding that Radhika had worked hard to build a successful tennis career and had even started her own academy.
Himaanshika further claimed, “She [Radhika] had to justify every move. Even on video calls, she had to show her parents who she was speaking to. She often pointed the camera towards me to prove it was just us. She couldn’t be late even if her tennis academy were only 50 meters away from their residence.”
Himaanshika also recalled their early days in the sport. She said, “We started playing together back in 2012 or 2013. We travelled together, played matches together. I never saw her talk to anyone outside her family. She was very reserved, mostly due to restrictions at home.”
“She loved making videos, taking photographs. But she gradually stopped. Her parents didn’t like her being independent,” she added.
Himaanshika refuted the speculation around a communal motive behind the killing. “People are talking about love jihad, but where is the evidence? She didn’t speak to many people. She was isolated,” Himaanshika said.
‘My best friend Radhika was murdered’
Himaanshika captioned the video as: “My best friend Radhika was murdered by her own father. He shot her five times. Four bullets hit her.”
“He’d made her life miserable for years with his controlling, constant criticism. In the end, he listened to so-called friends who were jealous of her success,” Radhika’s best friend said.
“She worked so hard in her tennis career and even built her own academy. She was doing so well for herself. But they couldn’t stand to see her independent,” she added.
“They shamed her for wearing shorts, for talking to boys, for living life on her own terms. He was rushed to the hospital, but she didn’t make it,” Himaanshika said.
Radhika Yadav’s murder
Former state-level tennis player Radhika Yadav was cremated on Friday evening, a day after her father allegedly shot her dead at point blank range.
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 on 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.