‘Couldn’t stand to see her independent… shamed her’: Friend of Radhika Yadav, tennis player killed by father, speaks out

She added that she attended Radhika’s cremation. “She was a very kind person, very sweet, innocent. She liked clicking photos and making videos.”

Referring to a music video featuring Radhika that’s been doing the rounds online after her death, Himanshika said it was a normal one. “Her father even dropped her for the shoot,” she said in the video.

Radhika’s parents had the “log kya kahenge (what will people say)” mindset, and she faced a lot of societal pressure, claimed Rajput. “Her parents were orthodox. She suffered for long, was feeling suffocated. She had to always clarify what she was doing and whom she was talking to — even when she would be talking or video-calling me,” she claimed.

Even though the tennis academy where she coached was 50 metres from her house, she still had to reach (home) at a particular time, Rajput claimed, adding that she was a great coach.

The crime took place around 10.30 am on Thursday. Radhika was cooking when her father allegedly shot her from behind with his pistol.

Her uncle, Kuldeep Yadav, 46, who lives on the ground floor with his family, said he heard the gunshots, rushed upstairs, found Radhika lying in a pool of blood, and eventually lodged a complaint.

The FIR states that Deepak was allegedly taunted by villagers in Wazirabad, saying that he was living off his daughter’s income. He had asked her to stop coaching at the academy, but she refused.

In a second part of the video, uploaded on Sunday afternoon, Rajput made further claims about Deepak. “The taunts he used to get from his friends in the village were that she was putting on makeup, wearing short clothes, that her earnings were supporting her father… How many women need to die because of men’s fragile egos?” she asked.

“She had become quite miserable in the 10 days before the murder, becoming resigned to her parents’ wishes,” she claimed.