Ghaziabad, Feb 11: Investigators have recovered a mobile phone belonging to the father of three sisters who died by suicide in Ghaziabad, seeking to determine if the tragedy was linked to an addictive online game. The device was located in the Shalimar Garden area after being sold to a shopkeeper for Rs 15,000 approximately two weeks before the incident.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Trans Hindon) Nimish Patil noted that retrieving data from the phone is essential to the ongoing investigation. The official mentioned that the examination will focus on whether the girls—Nishika, 16, Prachi, 14, and Pakhi, 12—were participating in a task-based Korean online game.
“Recovery of its data is essential to ascertain whether the suicides were linked to any task-based online Korean game,” Patil said. He noted that while preliminary checks have not yet identified a specific app, the father, Chetan Kumar, claimed his daughters had been involved with such a game for three years and had stopped attending school.
The sisters jumped from the ninth floor of their residential building on February 4. A nine-page diary recovered from their room revealed a deep fixation on Korean culture and significant domestic distress. The entries mentioned that the girls felt depressed after their phones were confiscated to stop them from playing games and communicating with friends online.
The diary described their interests as a “true life story” and expressed pain over family opposition to their choices. One entry noted that their parents expected them to marry in India, which they felt was impossible given their personal aspirations.
“Death is better for us than your beatings,” the diary stated, according to police records. The note concluded with an apology to their father, mentioning that the pressure to give up their interests had become unbearable.
