By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
At the age of 38, Prateek Yadav, the younger son of Samajwadi Party founder late Mulayam Singh Yadav and stepbrother of former UP chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, died in Lucknow on Wednesday morning after he was found unconscious in mysterious circumstances at his palatial home.
Prateek Yadav was rushed to the Civil Hospital where he was declared dead by doctors. Later a postmortem examination was conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death. The report later recorded: “Cardiorespiratory collapse due to massive pulmonary thromboembolism,” a condition in which a large blood clot blocks arteries in the lungs leading to sudden heart and lung failure.
The autopsy document further noted that “the entire heart and pulmonary thromboembolic material had been preserved in formalin for histopathological examination, while viscera had been preserved for chemical analysis.” These steps are standard in cases where specialists need to study organs and tissues to rule out other possible factors. The post-mortem report also noted six injury marks on different parts of his body. These included signs of severe contusions and underlying blood accumulation on the right side of the chest, right arm, right forearm, right elbow and left wrist.
Media reports quoting doctors said Prateek, a lover of luxury cars and aerobatic planes, was not keeping well as he was undergoing treatment of various underlying diseases. After his wife Aparna joined BJP, Prateek had admitted that he was under stress in purported social media posts which were later deleted.
Despite being son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Prateek Yadav stayed away from the razzmatazz of politics and was known as a fitness freak and animal lover.
Akhilesh paid tribute to his brother and said his demise is extremely heart-breaking. “May God grant peace to the departed soul. Humble tribute!” Akhilesh said on X.
In March, Prateek along with his wife and daughter had visited Iceland. His wife Aparna had put pictures of the trip on X also.
Significantly, three important members of the family — Mulayam Singh Yadav, his second wife Sadhana and son Prateek died in a short span of four years.
His marriage to Aparna — now a BJP leader and Vice-Chairperson of the UP State Women’s Commission — was high-profile by any measure, with guests including Amitabh Bachchan at the 2011 wedding.
But the marriage had grown visibly strained. Prateek had purportedly posted a lengthy statement on Instagram accusing Aparna of damaging his relationships with his brother Akhilesh and announced he would seek a divorce. But soon, he deleted the posts and new photos of the couple emerged posing as one happy family.