A gold medal-winning Indian para-athlete who was serving a four-year suspension for doping has been found dead in Delhi aged 42.

Neeraj Yadav, a three-time Asian Para Games gold medallist from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was found beside his SUV near Maujpur metro station in northeast Delhi on Monday night.

Yadav was serving a four-year ban after he was suspended over doping charges in 2023.

Delhi Police said they received information from Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital shortly after midnight on Tuesday that a man had been brought to its emergency department and declared dead.

A team reached the hospital, “and the body had already been shifted to GTB Hospital’s mortuary”, a police officer was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

Yadav ran the Anshneer Sports Academy in Sonipat, in the neighbouring state of Haryana, and is survived by his wife and three-year-old daughter.

Police said they were investigating the death and that a post-mortem was expected to reveal more information. Proceedings have been started under Section 194 of criminal code, which governs inquiries into suspected suicides.

The Independent has reached out to the Paralympic Committee of India for comment.

S Satyanarayana, head coach of India’s para-athletics team, said Yadav “would have been looking forward to competing” in the recent Asian Para Games in Japan.

“Medals at the Asian Para Games can bring substantial government cash awards. But his suspension had not ended, and he could not compete. It is possible this affected him deeply,” he said.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Indian athletes will now face stricter anti-doping requirements after the country’s athletics federation was moved to the highest-risk category by World Athletics.

India has ranked among the top two countries globally for anti-doping violations in athletics for each year between 2022 and 2025.

In response, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) board reclassified the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) from Category B to Category A, placing it alongside the likes of Russia, Belarus and Nigeria and subjecting it to more stringent anti-doping measures.

Yadav was diagnosed with post-polio residual paralysis at the age of seven. He began his sporting career in wheelchair tennis, competing 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.

He gained international recognition at the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta, winning the men’s F55 javelin throw with an Asian record of 29.84 metres. He went on to win two more gold medals at the 2023 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, in the javelin and discus events.

However, his career was later derailed by the 2023 doping case. India’s National Anti-Doping Agency provisionally suspended Yadav after an out-of-competition sample collected in Bengaluru tested positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.

He sought DNA testing of the sample during the disciplinary proceedings but was eventually handed a four-year ban.

The suspension prevented him from competing at the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. According to reports, his two gold medals from the 2023 Hangzhou Games were also revoked following the anti-doping proceedings, and he did not receive the associated government cash awards.

“It is very unfortunate that such a thing has happened,” Satyanarayana told The Hindu.