Deepshikha Verma
Ghaziabad, Feb 4 (.) Three minor sisters allegedly committed suicide after jumping from the ninth floor of their residential building in Ghaziabad early Wednesday morning in an incident suspected to be linked with a Korean task-based online gaming app that they got obsessed with, police said.
A suicide note was recovered from the crime scene in which the girls wrote, “Sorry, Mummy. Sorry, Papa.” The police confirmed this, told . that, “The three sisters also made a crying emoji on the suicide note.”
Officials said, “It was heartrending … and also a revelation to us how this new generation is straying into dangerous acts just based on gaming apps!”
The sisters, aged 12, 14, and 16, allegedly took the extreme step following a disagreement with their parents at home over their increasing reliance on an online task-based game.
Keshav Chaudhary Additional Commissioner of Police Ghaziabad told newspersons, “All three girls were influenced by Korean culture. They were addicted to mobile phones. There has been no confirmation that they were addicted to Korean games. The family had stopped giving them mobile phones, and upset over this, they took the step of suicide.”
The trio used to live in Ghaziabad along with their parents. The father of the girls is reportedly a foreign exchange trader.
Police added that the eldest was born to the trader’s first wife, while the two younger sisters were born to his second wife.
“We feel the rising trend of such app-linked behaviour must be properly studied by psychologists and remedial measures publicised,” an official investigating the incident told ..
The police got a PCR call on the incident at around 12:30 AM. The caller said that three children jumped from the ninth floor of a building. The police later learned that the deceased were with their mother. The mother was in another room.
During the intervening night, the deceased sisters went to the Puja room, they used a stair chair to open the window, and they climbed the chair to reach up to the window. The window also had another boundary wall, which they crossed in a bid to take the extreme step. Later the trio jumped down from the ledge.
Furthermore, Atul Kumar Singh, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Shalimar Garden, Ghaziabad, said, “Around 12:30 AM on Wednesday, the three girls were with their mothers before going to the puja room and locking it from inside.” He added that they then used a chair to jump out of the window one after another.
“They died on the spot. Security guards and local residents on the ground floor woke up after hearing the loud thud. The family was alerted by the local residents. The police were informed, and the bodies were sent for autopsy,” Singh said.
“The girls were deeply obsessed with a Korean task-based game and believed they were not Indian but Korean. They even imagined themselves as Korean princesses under the influence of the game,” Singh said.
“It was an online task-based game they had become addicted to. They were not paying attention to their studies. This situation worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to their addiction to online gaming,” Singh said.
The 16-year-old was said to be studying in Class 4.
The girls left numerous notes in a diary expressing their apologies and even drew a crying caricature, Singh said. He added that they used to carry out daily routines together.
According to sources, the note read, “A true life story. Is diary mein jo kuch bhi likha hain, woh sab padh lo, kyunki ye sab sach hain. (Whatever you are seeing in this diary, read everything, because everything is true) Read now! I am really sorry, sorry Papa.”
The cell phones of the girls were seized and reportedly sent to CFSL for the forensic examination. Police are investigating whether the deceased were given a death challenge-type task by the app, according to sources.
An SDM inquiry was also initiated into the matter. The police are also awaiting the autopsy reports. . DSV KK JRC