Modernity and patriarchy collide as murder shakes up Millennium City

On the outside, the building looks like any other house in this posh corner of Gurugram. A towering arched window pane dominates the three-storey facade, faded but serene images of Hindu deities peeking out. A green tarpaulin sheet dangles casually from the top floor, perhaps to shield against the punishing summer sun or monsoon drizzles. A white Thar stands in a narrow driveway, flanked by a pair of motorbikes.

- Leena Dhankhar

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 10.30am on Thursday.

Deepak has confessed to the crime, and 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 hides 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.

The murder coincided with Radhika’s mother Manju Yadav's birthday.

Ambition and grit

The Yadavs were prosperous, with interests in the construction and sale of builders’ floors, leasing out properties on rent, and land deals. They had moved out of Wazirabad village to the city nearly a decade ago. The reason, relatives said, was simple: To give the children, especially Radhika and her elder brother Dheeraj, a better shot at education and life.