NEW DELHI: Three sisters aged 12, 14 and 16 died after jumping from the balcony of their ninth-floor apartment in Ghaziabad in the early hours of Wednesday, police said, in a case that has drawn attention to prolonged social isolation, family conflict and the intense inner world the children had built for themselves.
The girls — Nishika (16), Prachi (14) and Pakhi (12) — left behind a diary and handwritten notes recovered from their belongings.
Their father,
Chetan Kumar, a forex trader, has two wives, both sisters, and there were five children in all - four daughters and a son.
The entire family lived together.
One note read, “Read everything written in this diary, it is all here”, followed by a crying face emoji, and another said, “Sorry papa, I am really sorry.”
Police said the sisters had not been attending school for nearly two years and spent almost all their time inside their home.
Writings found on the walls of the room where the girls spent most of their day point to what investigators describe as deep loneliness. Among the phrases scribbled were: “I am very, very alone”, “My life is very very alone” and “Make me a heart of broken”.
According to police, the three girls lived largely cut off from the outside world after the Covid pandemic.
They were not homeschooled, did not go out to play in the society compound and relied almost entirely on each other for companionship.
Officers said they were inseparable and referred to one another by names taken from television shows —
Maria, Aliza and Cindy.
Much of their emotional refuge, police believe, came from South Korean popular culture.
In the diary, which police say is likely to have been written by the 14-year-old and has been sent for forensic analysis, the sisters described their immersion in K-pop, Korean dramas and online games, and their resentment at what they felt was repeated parental disapproval.
“You don't know how much we loved Korea, now see the proof. Now it’s confirmed here that Korean and K-pop groups are our life. The way we loved Korean actors and K-pop groups, we didn't even love family members that much,” the sisters wrote.
The diary lists 19 things they said their parents disapproved of, including Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American and British music and actors, as well as cartoon shows such as Shin-chan and Doraemon and mobile games.
The girls also wrote about their four-year-old half-sister, referred to as Devu, and their anger at what they saw as parental interference when they tried to introduce her to what they called their “Korean relatives”.
“You made her Bollywood, which we hated more than life itself,” they wrote, describing an incident in which a parent objected to them teaching Devu about Korean culture. The sisters said this episode led them to decide to distance themselves from the younger child.
The diary also contains references to physical punishment, though it does not clearly state who was responsible.
“Did we live in this world to get beaten by you… death would be better for us than beatings,” they wrote. Another passage mentions marriage, a subject the girls were too young for, saying: “The mention of marriage caused tension in our hearts.”
Police say the family’s circumstances were strained. The girls’ father, Chetan Kumar, is a stock trader who investigators believe is in significant debt. Police sources said he had taken away and sold the eldest girl’s mobile phone around 15 days before the incident.
What did the father say?Kumar acknowledged the girls’ intense interest in Korean culture. “They listened to Korean music, watched Korean films, dramas, web series and cartoons. They also wanted to go to Korea. All three girls wanted us to accept Korean culture, but when we refused, their behaviour towards us changed and they went into a shell. They lived in their own world,” he said.
He told police he was asleep in an adjoining room and woke up after hearing screams.
According to police, the household included five children and three women who are sisters. Mr Kumar claims to have married all three. The eldest girl who died and a younger son were from his first wife, while the 14- and 12-year-old girls were from her younger sister. Devu, the four-year-old mentioned in the diary, is the daughter of the youngest sister.
Investigators say the diary suggests the final trigger may have been the parents’ refusal to allow the girls to involve Devu in their interest in Korean culture, and the younger child’s growing interest in Bollywood instead.
Police say the investigation is ongoing.
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