Gurugram tennis player Radhika cremated as academy colleagues remain in shock

Gurugram, July 11 (IANS) Family and friends bid a tearful adieu to national-level tennis player Radhika Yadav at her cremation on Saturday, even as the staff at the Gurugram sports academy where she coached youngsters appeared to be in shock a day after her gruesome murder.

While Radhika was consigned to flames at a local cremation ground and her killer father was sent to police custody by a city court, her colleagues at the tennis academy in Sector 57 said they were yet to come to terms with the news of her murder.

Tanu Singh, caretaker of the tennis courts at the academy, remembered her as a friendly and well-mannered colleague.

“She used to come to train children twice every day,” Tanu Singh told IANS.

Tanu Singh, who takes care of the tennis courts and provides balls to learners, said, “She never argued with anyone here. She used to travel to the academy on her own on either on an autorickshaw or with the parents of the children whom she coached.”

He said Radhika had been training children for the past month or so.

Tanu Singh said he had never seen her father or any other relative accompany her to the academy.

Expressing grief over her murder, another academy employee said, “She had never indicated any problem or family tension to anyone at the academy.”

Earlier in the day, a Gurugram court sent the tennis player’s killer father, Deepak Yadav, 49, to a day’s police remand for interrogation, even as her mother failed to give a clear answer to police on the reason behind the shocking incident.

Police sources said Radhika’s mother, Manju Yadav, has refused to give a clear statement on the incident.

She has maintained ignorance over the reason behind the killing, claiming that she was resting in her room due to fever when the incident took place, said an investigator who refused to be named.

Deepak Yadav had on Thursday pumped three bullets into his daughter at their home following an argument over her running a sports academy.

On Friday afternoon, the police produced Yadav in a Gurugram court and sought a two-day remand, but the judge allowed his questioning for just one day.

Yadav’s face was covered with a hood when he was brought to the court under tight security by a team led by Station House Officer of Sector-56 police station Rajender Kumar.

The investigators refused to answer questions from media persons who asked if any love angle was involved in the case.

--IANS

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