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Three sisters died this week after jumping from the ninth floor of an apartment building in Ghaziabad, India, local authorities and their family said
The girls are reportedly suspected to have become “addicted” to an online game and were recently “denied access” to a phone
“This should not happen to any parent or child,“ their dad said, adding, “I was not aware of the game, or I would have never let them play it.”
Three sisters died this week after jumping from the ninth floor of their apartment building in India, local authorities and their family said.
The girls are suspected to have become “addicted” to an online game and were recently “denied access” to a phone, the NDTV news network and the Press Trust of India reported, citing police.
However, their deaths have not yet been tied directly to the game, according to NDTV.
Around 2:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday, Feb. 4, officials responded to reports that “three girls had jumped from the balcony of the ninth floor” of an apartment building in Ghaziabad, outside New Delhi, police said on X.
The girls were identified as sisters Nishika, 16, Prachi, 14, and Pakhi, 12. The eldest victim’s name has also been identified as Vishika, per NDTV.
“When we reached the scene, we confirmed that three girls, daughters of Chetan Kumar, had died after jumping from the building,” a police official said, NDTV reported.
Generic image of police lights in India
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An investigation is ongoing. PEOPLE contacted police for further comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The sisters reportedly jumped from the balcony of their family apartment one after the other and left an eight-page suicide note in a diary for their parents, according to NDTV.
This detailed their love for online gaming and what appeared to be a fixation on Korean culture, their father, Chetan Kumar, told NDTV.
PTI reported that they were obsessed with a “Korean game that involved a series of tasks” and that the three girls largely spent time at home, having not gone to school in two years.
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“They had been playing the game for two-and-a-half to three years,” Kumar told PTI.
“They often said they wanted to go to Korea,” he said.
Their phone habits got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NDTV.
But then “for the past few days, they had been denied access to a mobile phone, a restriction that appeared to have affected them,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Nimish Patel told NDTV.
“This should not happen to any parent or child,“ Chetan told the outlet, adding, “I was not aware of the game, or I would have never let them play it.”
“The investigation so far has not revealed any specific game name. But it is clear that the girls were influenced by Korean culture,” Patel told NDTV.
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