‘Loved getting clicked, but left it all because…': Radhika Yadav's friend recalls tennis player's ‘controlled' life

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Gurugram: Himaanshika Singh Rajput, who claimed to be the best friend of the deceased tennis player Radhika Yadav, took to Instagram alleging that her parents were extremely controlling and were sensitive to societal pressure. Himaanshika, bestfriend of Radhika Yadav says, Tennis player left hobbies due to family pressure. (Instagram/@Himaanshika)
Himaanshika said she and Radhika were close for the last eight to ten years, alleged that she was suffering and felt suffocated at home as she needed to explain every activity to her parents.
'She loved getting clicked photos and recording videos but left all those hobbies due to parental pressure as they thought what society would think of them. They were extremely orthodox,' she alleged in the two and half minutes long video on her Instagram handle captioning it as 'Part-I' which has garnered more than two million views and about 3000 comments in less than 24 hours.
Himaanshika also has uploaded another video which she has especially created remembering her deceased friend Radhika.
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'There are several things doing rounds in the media but I want to tell you all the truth about her. This is the sole purpose of my video to tell you all who Radhika was. She was an international level tennis player. She was very innocent and sweet and was playing tennis for the last 18 years,' she said.
Himanshi, also a tennis player, said that she and Radhika started playing tennis together back in 2012.
'I remember that she even had to show my video calls to her parents that it was Himanshi who was calling,' she alleged.
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Denying all claims of affairs and love jihad as shown in electronic media, Himanshi asked why no one has any proof of these things.
'It because Radhika never talked to anyone as there was severe restriction at her home. Parents always accompanied her everywhere. The music video about which everyone is talking about was shot 1.5 years back and her father had dropped her to the shooting venue,' she said.
Even Sonu Sisodiya, the ground coordinator where Radhika ran her academy, had also said that she was always accompanied either by her mother or by her father when she reached for training the players.
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Raju Yadav, a close relative of accused father Deepak Yadav, told HT that he always used to accompany her to the venues where her matches were held.
'He had stopped giving time to family and friends, wrapped his car accessory business in order to be able to travel with Radhika. Whenever we rang him, we got to know that he was accompanying Radhika in other cities for her matches,' he said, which was also corroborated by Pawan Yadav, Deepak's close friend and Sushant Lok-II RWA president.
Himanshi said Radhika's academy was hardly a walking distance from her residence in Sector-57 but there was a certain time by which she had to return.
Gurugram police have said that Radhika's father Deepak was taunted by villagers that he was living on her daughter's income due to which he wanted her to close the tennis academy. However, Radhika had refused to do so following which he shot her dead while she was cooking food in the kitchen on Thursday morning.
As per the FIR, Deepak, in his confessional statement, told police that his 'pride' was hurt with the taunts and comments made by the villagers for living on her daughter's income and thus shot her.