‘Involved with a Muslim man?’ Radhika Yadav’s killing by father sparks flurry of misleading communal claims
On July 10, 2025, 25-year-old Radhika Yadav was allegedly shot dead by her father, Deepak Yadav, in her own home in Gurugram. Yadav shot at her three times with his licensed revolver. The case has drawn national attention over the brutality of the alleged crime. However, following the incident, several social media users claimed that the ‘real reason’ behind Radhika’s death was her involvement with a Muslim man.
In 2024, Radhika, a promising state-level tennis player, featured in a music video alongside a Muslim singer. Many X accounts were quick to point this out with speculative claims that Radhika’s father killed her because he was unhappy that his daughter starred in a video with a Muslim. Some conjectured that her ‘relationship’ with a Muslim man made her father unhappy.
Among those who made such statements was X account @HPhobiaWatch. On July 11, a day after she was killed, the user posted, “Radhika father killed her because he was angry over she making reels with insta influencer Inamul Haq”. The user insinuated that Deepak Yadav should have killed the Muslim man instead. (Archive)
Media outlet News24 also claimed that Radhika’s father was unhappy that she appeared in a video produced by a Zeeshan Ahmed. (Archive)
Another X user, @iiamkrshn, posted a ‘meme’ showing Deepak Yadav’s picture with the text “Bulle se shadi karke vaise hi marne wali thi, Pahle hi maar dia toh kya galat kiaa”. (“She was going to die anyway after marrying a Muslim, what’s wrong with killing her first?”)
Note that ‘Bulla’ is an alternative term to refer to Muslims in place of the derogatory slur ‘Mulla‘, which is more prone to getting flagged under X’s community guidelines. (Archive)
X account @KreatelyMedia and @SaffronSunanda, both of which have been flagged by Alt News for misinformation and posts inciting communal hatred several times (see here and here), also shared similar claims. (Archives 1, 2)
X user @dudeitsokay urged his followers to be like Deepak Yadav, who, the user claims, ‘did the right thing’ after he found out his daughter was ‘nachaniya‘ (dancer) and a ‘honda sherni‘. The latter term is possibly a crude distortion of Hindu sherni or lioness and could refer to women who seemingly conform to Hinduism but are actually secular and indulge in interfaith relationships. (Archive)
Several other X accounts shared similar claims that the reason for Radhika’s killing was her involvement with a Muslim. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Click to view slideshow.
Fact Check
Several news outlets reported that Deepak Yadav disapproved of Radhika’s tennis training career and could not stand his daughter’s success “as she gradually climbed the ranks internationally in the doubles category”.
The Gurugram police said that Radhika used to train aspirants by booking tennis courts at different places, which her father objected to. According to an Indian Express report, she was coaching many high-profile clients. During questioning, the father claimed that locals taunted him for being dependent on his daughter whenever he stepped out. It was later revealed that Deepak was financially well off with good rental income from various properties and was not dependent on his daughter’s earnings. However, he was upset with the taunts.
Another Indian Express report, citing the police, said that a dispute over this issue led Yadav to shoot his daughter. “He had asked her several times to stop running her academy,” a police spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Taking cue from the viral claims, Alt News found the full music video in which Radhika featured on Facebook. It was released by a production company called Little Lion Films on June 20, 2024, and the song was titled Karwaan, sung by Inaam Ul Haq. We also found Inaam Ul Haq’s Facebook profile, where he posted a statement clarifying the misleading rumours.
“…Yes, I had worked with Radhika. I had shared my music with her the Karwaan song, two Krishna bhajans, and Saware. Just like I’ve shared my songs with so many other artists — men, women, Hindu, Muslim, everyone. That’s the truth. That’s the only truth. But today, people are twisting that. They’re turning music into motive. They’re calling it love jihad. They’re giving it angles and meanings that break my soul… But today… it’s my own people who are questioning me without knowing anything about me,” the Facebook post read.
Even now… it still feels like I’m living in a dream.
Like all of this is just a nightmare.
That I’ll suddenly wake up……
Posted by Inam Ul Haq on Saturday 12 July 2025
In an interview with media outlet News18 India, Haq said that when he shared the final video with Radhika, she said her father loved the song. He also said that the shoot of the music video happened in the presence of Radhika’s mother. He said Radhika had deactivated her Instagram account after the song was released because she was busy with work.
On Instagram, too, Haq maintained that he had “only done a music video with her”, like he had with many others.
On July 13, Radhika’s friend Himaanshika Singh Rajput also addressed the viral claims regarding this being a case of ‘love jihad’ and said, “It was a normal music video that she had shot a year or 1.5 years ago, and her father himself used to drop her at the shoot location. She had done many other shoots too, but all that stopped because her parents were worried about judgment from others. There was always societal pressure, and her parents were very orthodox…”, Himaanshika said in a video.
According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the police are looking into the music video in which Radhika Yadav had played a part, but so far, they have found no link between the murder and the clip. In a video statement, Gurugram police’s public relations officer, Sandeep Kumar, said that the claims related to the music video were “rumours” and that nothing of this sort has been confirmed in the ongoing probe so far.
Alt News also reached out to the Station House Officer (SHO) of Sector 56 police station in Gurugram (where the case is registered) for further clarification on these claims. The SHO, Vinod Kumar, rubbished the communal claims that Radhika’s ‘involvement’ with a Muslim man was the reason for her killing. “Nothing of this sort is true… What is going on in their house, they would know. Others have no business saying such nonsense. No such thing (communal angle) has come to the fore. Whatever has come forth has been filed, and we have informed the PRO…” Kumar told Alt News.
Thus, the murder of tennis player Radhika Yadav has been given a misleading communal spin by several social media users. These users claimed that Deepak Yadav was unhappy with his daughter’s involvement with a Muslim man and therefore killed her. Some of them also went to the extent of justifying his actions. However, Alt News found these were unsubstantiated theories. So far, no such communal narrative has emerged in police investigation.
The post ‘Involved with a Muslim man?’ Radhika Yadav’s killing by father sparks flurry of misleading communal claims appeared first on Alt News.
News