Neeraj Yadav death: Friend says she met para athlete hours before he was found beside SUV

NEW DELHI: Neeraj Yadav, a 42-year-old three-time Asian Para Games gold medallist, was found dead beside his SUV near Maujpur metro station in northeast Delhi Monday night in a suspected case of suicide. Yadav, who hailed from UP, used to run Anshneer Sports Academy in Haryana’s Sonipat. He is survived by his wife and their three-year-old daughter.Police received information from GTB Hospital around 12.08 am Tuesday that a person had been brought to its emergency department and declared dead by the attending doctors.“A team reached Rajiv Gandhi Hospital, where the emergency services of GTB Hospital are currently being operated, and the body had already been shifted to GTB Hospital’s mortuary,” an officer said.During inquiry, a woman who had brought Yadav to the hospital told police she had been friends with him since Dec 2025. According to her statement, she went to Sonipat on Oct 27 to meet Yadav and tell him she could no longer remain in touch with him. She told police Yadav later dropped her off at Maujpur in his SUV.Around 9pm, when the woman returned to the area near Gate No. 1 of Maujpur metro station to check on him, she found him lying on the road beside his vehicle and rushed him to hospital.Jafrabad police station has begun proceedings under BNSS Section 194, which deals with police inquiries and reports in cases of suicide and other unnatural deaths. “We have not found any suicide note or video,” an officer said.Speaking to reporters, a relative of Yadav said, “He had struggled, fought his way through difficulties and continued playing. It is difficult for me to believe that he could take the extreme step.”He also said he was unaware of the woman who had accompanied Yadav before his death and called for her role to be examined.Despite being diagnosed with post-polio residual paralysis at the age of seven, Yadav pursued his sporting ambitions, playing wheelchair tennis between 2005 and 2012 before switching to para-athletics. His breakthrough came at the 2015 Delhi State Athletics Meet, where he won gold medals in the shot put, javelin and discus events.Yadav announced himself on the international stage at the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta, winning gold in the men’s F55 javelin throw with an Asian-record effort of 29.84 metres. He subsequently clinched two gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games in 2023, winning the javelin and discus events to take his career tally to three Asian Para Games titles.However, his career was clouded by an anti-doping case. National Anti-Doping Agency provisionally suspended him after an out-of-competition sample collected in Bengaluru in 2023 tested positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. He sought DNA testing of his sample through the anti-doping disciplinary process. He was later banned for four years.India’s chief para-athletics coach S Satyanarayana suggested Yadav may have been under emotional distress after missing the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games because of his doping suspension. “Medals at the Asian Para Games can bring substantial govt cash awards. But his suspension had not ended, and he could not compete. It is possible this affected him deeply,” he said.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.