When three minor sisters fell to their deaths from the ninth floor of a Ghaziabad high-rise earlier this week, speculation made rounds — that the girls were allegedly obsessed with a task-based Korean game. Grief-stricken, their father even urged the government to ban such games. But as the police investigation deepened, more details emerged — that of financial ruin, three marriages, shifting statements and a family history shadowed by unexplained deaths.
Chetan Kumar, the father of the three girls, lives in Bharat City Society in Ghaziabad with his three wives — Sujata, Heena and Tina. With Sujata, he told police, he has a daughter and a son, who is mentally-challenghed. With her sister Heena, he has two daughters. It was Sujata’s and Heena’s daughters who allegedly jumped from the ninth floor of the building. His third wife, Tina, who is 22, has a three-year-old daughter with him.
“She was a Muslim who agreed to convert to Hinduism for the marriage…The other two wives say they consented to the third marriage, which took place in 2023,” said Atul Kumar Singh, ACP, Shalimar Garden.
However, according to police, there are loopholes in the timeline shared by Chetan of his weddings. He had earlier told the police that he married Sujata in 2010 and Heena in 2013, claiming that he married the second time because Sujata was unable to conceive. But this claim raised questions on how his eldest daughter with Sujata is 16. He had also earlier claimed that Tina is not his wife, but his sister-in-law.
Police are now trying to retrieve documents to establish the timeline. However, that task is proving to be difficult. “Both Sujata and Heena are uneducated. They cannot even recall their wedding dates and say they do not know anything about their official marriage documents,” Singh said.
Another detail that caught police’s attention is that despite living in a three-bedroom flat, the entire family slept in a single room. When asked how no one noticed three girls leaving the room late at night, Singh said there was nothing unusual. “It was part of their routine, They stayed awake till late, talked, played games and always stayed together. No one noticed anything suspicious that night,” he said. They had dropped out of school years ago after Chetan’s financial collapse.
The girls originally had two mobile phones. Both are now gone. Chetan, deep in debt, sold one phone six months ago and the second one just 15 days before the incident, police said. “We are trying to track the two phones,” Singh said, “Once phones are sold, they are usually formatted. After formatting, the chances of recovering data are very low, but we are running the IMEI numbers.”
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As police are examining Chetan’s past, another death has resurfaced, which had been written off as an accident.
Speaking to the press, Vinod Kumar, the father of Sujata and Hina, recalled an earlier death in the family. On the birthday of Chetan’s eldest daughter about six-seven years ago, one of Vinod’s daughters had visited Chetan’s home where she allegedly slipped while taking clothes off the balcony and fell to her death from the third floor. The family did not file a police complaint. The deceased was around 16 at the time.
Saman Husain is a Correspondent at The Indian Express. Based in New Delhi, she is an emerging voice in political journalism, reporting on civic governance, elections, migration, and the social consequences of policy, with a focus on ground-reporting across Delhi-NCR and western Uttar Pradesh.
Professional Profile
Education:
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science (Honours) from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, and is an alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai.
Core Beats:
Her reporting focuses on the national capital’s governance and politics. She specializes in Delhi’s civic administration and the city units of the BJP, AAP and Congress. In western Uttar Pradesh, she mostly reports on crime.
Specialization:
She has a keen interest in electoral processes and politics — her recent contributions include work on electoral roll revisions.
Recent Notable Articles (since July 2025)
Her recent work reflects a strong show-not-tell approach to storytelling, combining narrative reporting with political and historical context:
1. Politics:
“On the banks of the Yamuna, a political tussle for Purvanchali support” (October 6): A report on how migration histories shaped electoral strategies in Delhi before the Bihar elections.
“Explained: How Delhi’s natural drainage vanished gradually over the centuries” (September 29): An explanatory piece tracing the historical reasons that eventually led to the erosion of Delhi’s rivers and its impact on perrenial flooding.
2. Longforms
“Four weddings, three funerals: How a Uttar Pradesh man swindled insurance companies” (October 7): A long-read reconstructing a chilling fraud by a man who killed three of his family members, including both his parents for insurance proceeds. His fourth wife discovered his fraud…
“How Ghaziabad conman operated fake embassy of a country that doesn’t exist — for 9 years” (July 27) : A story on bizarre fraud operation and the institutional blind spots that enabled it.
3. Crime and Justice:
“He was 8 when his father was killed. Fifteen years later, in UP’s Shamli, he took revenge” (October 18): A deeply reported crime story tracing cycles of violence, memory and justice in rural Uttar Pradesh.
“Who killed 19 girls in Nithari? With the SC rejecting appeals, there are no answers and no closure” (July 31): A report capturing the long legal and emotional aftermath of one of India’s most chilling unsolved criminal cases.
4. Policy Impact
“At Manthan, over US tariffs, Delhi-NCR’s apparel industry brainstorms solutions” (September 8) and “Trump’s 50% tariff begins to bite: Agra’s leather belt feels the impact” (August 13) : Reports documenting how global trade decisions ripple through local industries, workers and exporters.
Signature Style
Saman is recognized for her grassroots storytelling. Her articles often focus on the "people behind the policy". She is particularly skilled at taking mundane administrative processes and turning them into compelling human narratives.
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