Ghaziabad suicide sparks questions on family struggles and Korean influence

THree sisters elderly 11, 14 and 16, possessed(p) with Korean civilization and influenced by a task-based online biz, died by felo-de-se by jumping off a modified window of their ninth floor flat in a Ghaziabad high-rise in the early hours of Wednesday.Or did they?The grisly deaths of the three minor half-sisters at 2am on Wednesday left behind a puzzling trail of questions that were only compounded by their father’s and the police’s contradictory statements, a final message scribbled in blue ink on a piece of glass, shocking revelations in a eight-page “diary entry”, the financial duress that allegedly weighed heavily on the family, and the repeated appearance of Korean culture in the narrative.Ghaziabad Police and eyewitness Arun Kumar confirmed that the three sisters – who allegedly dropped out of school three years ago as the financial situation of the family deteriorated – were seen on the ledge of the window around 2am.“One person was swinging by the edge of a window on the 9th floor, and being held on to by two others. Within minutes, all of them fell in front of his eyes. When I rushed downstairs, I saw that there were three children,” said Kumar, who lives on the 10th floor in a tower that faces the girls’ flat.They were taken to a hospital in Loni but were declared dead on arrival at a government hospital in Loni. No first information report was filed in the case at the time of going to print, and inquest proceedings were initiated, said Nimish Patil, DCP of trans-Hindon zone.“The autopsy was conducted by a panel of doctors and the process was completed by Wednesday evening. The report is awaited and the three bodies have been handed over to the family,” deputy commissioner of police Nimish Patil said.Police said the girls lived with their 38-year-old father, who used to work as a stock market trader but recently suffered financial losses. The mother of the 16-year-old and the mother of the 11 and 14-year-old – they were sisters – lived in the house.Also in the house were an 13-year-old boy (the brother of the 16-year-old), a four-year-old girl, and her mother, who was also related to the two other mothers. Police couldn’t confirm which woman was lawfully wedded to the father.Police said that the girls left behind a pocket diary with notes scribbled across eight pages, and another note in a mix of Hindi and English on a glass panel in the room from where they jumped. “Read everything written in this diary because it’s the truth. Read now! I’m really sorry. Sorry, Papa,” the scrawl on the glass said. A crying emoji made in pen accompanied the note.When the crime was discovered in the morning, the initial investigation quickly veered towards blaming Korean online games.“They were playing these games for about two-and-half years. I knew that they were playing some game, but I did not know that the game had such a task – jumping. Who would have allowed children to play such games? I only found out today,” the father told the media in the morning.By evening, this theory was riddled with doubts. The police said that the phone recovered from the room was sent for forensic investigation and denied the role of any online or app-based game.“They were obsessed with Korean songs, movies, cartoons, and online games and especially K-dramas, which influenced them a lot,” said Patil.The father said that the girls’ obsession with Korean shows had started affecting their daily lives. “They started watching Korean shows two to three years ago, and over the past year, they began dressing like the characters. I thought it was harmless... They stopped studying, playing, and even talking to me. Last week, they kept insisting on going to Korea. I told them we couldn’t afford it and scolded them,” he said at Nigam Bodh Ghat.The girls often used fictional names – Aliza, Maria, Cindy – to refer to each other, officials aware of the investigation said, adding that the lockscreen of a phone recovered by the police had photos of the three girls with these names as captions.Instead, the police focussed on a more mundane, but equally disturbing, trigger.A police official, aware of the matter, told HT that the father had suffered heavy financial losses. Five days ago, he sold his phone – on which the girls used to watch their shows – for ₹3,500 and used that money to restore electricity supply in the house.“He did not allow them to watch K-dramas. About three days ago, he also threatened that he would marry them off if they continued watching K-dramas. In one of the pages of the diary, they had written that they were Koreans, how could they marry Indians. They were living in an illusion that they were not Indians but Koreans,” said the official.Patil said that the girls – who shared a very strong bond with each other – were probably upset about these recent developments and took the drastic step.“The girls had no mobile phones of their own and were using the mobile phones of their parents. The suicide note, addressed to the parents, stated that ‘You pulled us away from Korean culture, but now you know how much we love Korean’,” he said.Assistant commissioner of police Atul Kumar Singh said that the girls portrayed themselves as Korean princesses, and got addicted to being online during the pandemic.But the eight-page “diary” note threw up more questions.“The girls in their eight page suicide note also mentioned they don’t like “bhai (brother)”. They also didn’t have a social life. Their reason was because he and others didn’t understand their Korean culture and K-pop obsession. The girls had a single phone which they used to watch shows…They were upset because they couldn’t go live there,” said a senior police officer.The neighbours knew little about this family; the children barely played with others in the colony, and the women kept to themselves.Rahul Kumar Jha, the joint secretary of the society, told HT, “I saw the girls playing hours before this happened. I am shocked. We knew they liked Korean songs and culture as they always listened to K-pop songs on their phones. They never spoke to other children.”Another resident, RK Singhania, said that the girls never attended any colony celebrations, never played with other children, and the three referred to their middle sister as the “leader.”“They didn’t go to school, they didn’t step outside the colony, never spoke to anyone, and didn’t even go to the market nearby,” said the colony guard, Charan Singh.The father said the girls kept to themselves and did everything together.“The 14-year-old was the leader and the other two followed her orders. She used to tell me that she is the boss of the other two. They used to go to the toilet together and would eat food only on her instructions. They had not been going to school out of shame for the past two-and-half years as they had failed. They used to stay together and would move to another room if anyone visited their room,” said the father.Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides are preventable. A few major suicide prevention helpline numbers in India are 011-23389090 from Sumaitri (Delhi-based) and 044-24640050 from Sneha Foundation (Chennai-based).