Ghaziabad triple tragedy: They lived in parallel ‘Korean’ universe online, refused to give it up, say police

“They were under the influence of K-dramas. They had left school and all their time was spent watching Korean dramas on mobile phones. On Tuesday night, after other members of the family went to sleep, the girls locked themselves in their room and jumped to their death,” Additional Commissioner of Police, Ghaziabad, Alok Priyadarshi said.

The girls were found lying on hard ground at the foot of their building by residents of the society after they heard several loud noises in rapid succession, apparently caused by the girls hitting the ground and some protrusions from flats below theirs as they fell, just after 2 am.

Obsession: The sisters, aged 12, 14, and 16, spent almost all of their time with their phones. They believed they were living a ‘Korean’ life, and would try to imitate its characters. (Illustration generated by Gemini/Nano Banana with theme specific prompts by Abhishek Mitra)

They were declared dead at a nearby hospital.

“Approximately 2.15 am, the Police Response Vehicle (PRV) received information that three girls had jumped from the ninth-floor balcony of flat number 907 in Tower B-1 of Bharat City, located in the Tila Mod police station area, and had died at the scene,” Atul Kumar Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Shalimar Garden, Ghaziabad, said.

Additional CP Priyadarshi said the “case was open” and “we are talking to the father of the girls”, but no FIR had been registered.

Police said the father, Chetan Kumar, had married twice, and the girls stayed in the rented flat with him and both his wives, a maternal aunt, and their two other siblings. Chetan Kumar was struggling financially, and was under a debt of Rs 2 crore, police officers said.

“Chetan’s two wives were sisters, and he had five children with the women, including a 9-year-old son who is mute and deaf,” an officer said. Two of the girls who died were from one of the man’s wives, the other girl was from the other wife, police said.

Police officers said they had recovered an eight-page “suicide note” that suggested the girls had “planned” their death. According to police, the girls alleged in the note that they were beaten by their parents who also threatened to get them married off. This was unacceptable to them, police officers said, because they “loved Koreans”.

“Should we live in this world to be beaten by you? No, death would be better… At the very mention of marriage, we get tense. We like and love Koreans, and we can never accept marriage with Indian men,” the girls allegedly wrote in their purported suicide note.

Tragedy: They were extremely upset when their father took away their phones and threatened to get them married off. Early on Wednesday, they jumped from a window, police said. (Illustration generated by Gemini/Nano Banana with theme specific prompts by Abhishek Mitra)

According to the police, the alleged suicide note was addressed to the girls’ father – they said “sorry Papa”, but insisted they could not give up “Korean”.

“Korean is our life, how did you even dare to make us leave our life? You don’t know how much we love them, now you have seen the proof,” they wrote in the purported suicide note, police said.

“Now you must believe that Korean and K-pop were our life…,” the girls allegedly wrote. They also listed names of several cartoons and online games including The Baby in Yellow, Evil Nun, and other Korean, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese dramas, police officers said.

The girls’ father, Chetan Kumar, confirmed to The Indian Express that his daughters were huge fans of K-dramas, and had stopped going to school at least three years ago. “The three girls were from my two wives. I married my wife’s younger sister after my wife was unable to conceive,” he said.

Conclusion: Police say they are talking to the girls’ father, but prima facie believe the girls died by suicide. They have recovered a ‘suicide note’ that speaks to the girls’ Korean fixation. (Illustration generated by Gemini/Nano Banana with theme specific prompts by Abhishek Mitra)

Chetan said the oldest girl had dropped out of school in Class 7, and the other two in Classes 6 and 5. “They failed in class, and thereafter resisted going to school. A year ago, I sent them to a private coaching centre, but they had an argument with the teacher and stopped going,” he said.

Chetan said he had taken away the girls’ mobile phones three days before the tragedy, and had told them to stop watching K-dramas. “They were crazy about them… They tried to speak like the characters in those dramas, behave like them, imitated them. Three months ago, they had created their channel on YouTube, which I deleted. They were very upset,” he said.

On Tuesday night, the family had a dinner of bhindi-roti, after which the girls locked themselves in their room, the father said. “Later in the night, my wife banged on their door and asked them to open it. Soon afterward, we heard screams and noises of their fall,” Chetan said.