Konica Layak Height, Age, Death, Family, Biography & More

Konica Layak was an Indian national-level rifle shooter. She was a state champion (Jharkhand) in 10 M Air Rifle Shooting. On 15 December 2021, she committed suicide in her hostel in Kolkata.

Wiki/Biography

Konica Layak was born in 1994 (age 26 years; at the time of death) in Anugrah Nagar, Dhanbad, Jharkhand. She did her schooling at Shree Shree Lakshmi Narayan Trust Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Dhanbad, Jharkhand. She then pursued Master of Commerce from Raja Shiv Prasad (RSP) College, Jharia, Dhanbad, Jharkhand. During her college days, she joined NCC and from there she developed an interest in rifle shooting.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 6″

Weight (approx.): 50 kg

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

Her father, Parth Prateem Layak, works in a private company. Her mother, Beena Layak, is an Anganwadi worker. She had two elder sisters and one younger sister.

Husband

According to her mother, she was engaged to a man and was about to get married in February 2022.

Career

She started her career as a rifle shooter while she was in college. She then participated in various district-level shooting competitions. She was the Jharkhand state champion in 10m Air Rifle Shooting, and she won various state-level rifle shooting competitions in 2015, 2016, and 2017. She also qualified to participate in the national level shooting competitions in 2016 in Pune and in 2017 in Kerala. However, she could not win the competitions. In 2021, she started her training in shooting at Jaideep Karmakar Shooting Academy in Kolkata.

Death

On 15 December 2021, she committed suicide in the hostel room of Mukti Neerh Ladies Hostel on Bireswar Chatterjee Street in Howrah district, West Bengal. Reportedly, she hung herself to the ceiling fan in her room with a dupatta tied around her neck. During the investigation, the local police said,

Layak apparently hanged herself after her roommates left for work. The body has been sent for post-mortem. Members of her family have come from Jharkhand.”

The local police recovered a suicide note from the place of the incident. A few lines from the suicide note were,

I want to quit for not being able to fulfil the dreams of my parents and I am a failure.”

On hearing the news of her demise, her coach Joydeep Karmakar said,

Layak suffered a setback in October when she was disqualified for the national championship at the G V Mavalankar pre-national event on charges of tampering with the target. Layak is the fourth Indian shooter to die by suicide in four months. Three shooters from Punjab shot themselves with their own firearms since September. This is definitely a bad time for the nation’s shooting sports fraternity. Maybe psychologists can throw more light on this. I got to know about Layak only after I read in the newspapers that Sood was moved by her troubles and got her a new rifle. We contacted her and asked her to come over for training. We reduced her training fees by 50%. Her skills were quite raw when we took her on board.”

Her mother had her three days prior to her death. Her mother said that she was very happy and did not have any problem. When her father was asked about the incident, he said,

I had no idea why she may have taken the drastic step. The local police have begun investigations. They are going through her cell phone details. She seemed perfectly fine when I last spoke with her on Tuesday night. I hope the police find something.”

Facts/Trivia

• Konica had received one gold medal at the district level and three gold medals at the state level.

• She lost the national level shooting competitions in 2016 and 2017, as she did not have the upgraded rifle. She then requested the sports authority and various NGOs to help her. She tagged the Indian actor Sonu Sood in one of her tweets requesting an upgraded rifle. After reading the tweet, Sonu Sood Foundation came forward to help her and Sonu Sood gifted her a German rifle worth Rs. 2.5 lakhs. During an interview, while talking about it, she said,
  

  I cannot have my own rifle as it costs nearly ₹ 3 lakh. I had to depend on my coach rifle or on my friend. I had arranged ₹ 80,000 from my friends and taken ₹ 1 lakh as a loan for the rifle and fortunately, Sonu Sood Foundation arranged the remaining funds for the rifle and I have already placed the order. The Germany-made rifle would be reaching me in two and half months.”

  Konica Layak holding her rifle gifted by Sonu Sood

• She also tweeted a thank you message for Sonu Sood. Her tweet reads,
  

  Sir, my rifle is here. A wave of happiness has spread in my family and the whole village is blessing you.”