New Delhi: Shooter Konica Layak, 26, committed suicide in the Kolkata hostel, allegedly hanged herself from the ceiling fan. Hailing from Jharkhand, Konica came to prominence when she received a German Rs 2.70 lakh rifle from Sonu Sood earlier in 2021 because she was relying on a borrowed rifle and couldn’t afford a gun and missed the national championships despite two qualifications.
Shooter Konica Layak was training with former Olympian and award winner Arjuna Joydeep Karmakar in Kolkata. She is from Dhansar in Dhanbad of Jharkhand.
Note that this is the fourth suicide in 4 months of an Indian shooter – Khushseerat Kaur Sandhu, Hunardeep Singh Sohal, and Namanveer Singh Brar also committed suicide. All were state-level shooters.
The shooter has won four state-level gold medals. She made the headlines when she couldn’t make it to a national tournament because she didn’t have a gun. Konica Layak tagged Sonu Sood in a tweet in January. Tagging Sonu Sood, Konika wrote in his appeal: “I won a silver medal and a gold medal at the 11th Jharkhand State Rifle Archery Championship. However, the government did not let me know. Didn’t help at all Please help me with a gun Please help Konika Layak also tagged the ministry and government official with Sonu Sood.
The Tribune reached out to Konica’s coach who said she was not regular for her workouts for the past 10 days.
“This is shocking news for all of us. She has been doing well in training but lately, she has been missing her sessions a lot for one reason or another,” Joydeep told Tribune.
“She was to be married soon. I don’t know what happened or forced her to take this step. We are heartbroken, ”he added.
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