NEED TO KNOW
- Three sisters have died after jumping from the ninth floor of an apartment building in India, local authorities confirmed on Wednesday, Feb. 4
- The girls were identified as sisters Nishika, 16, Prachi, 14, and Pakhi, 12. All three died at the scene, according to local police
- The teens were reportedly obsessed with an online game from Korea and had recently been denied access to playing it, their father reportedly told local outlet NDTV.
Three sisters have died after jumping from the ninth floor of an apartment building in India.
At around 2:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday, Feb. 4, local police responded to reports that “three girls had jumped from the balcony of the ninth floor” of an apartment building on the outskirts of New Delhi, the Uttar Pradesh Police (UPP) announced on X.
The girls were identified as sisters Nishika, 16, Prachi, 14, and Pakhi, 12. All three died at the scene, according to authorities.
“Upon reaching the scene, an investigation was conducted, revealing that three girls had died due to falling on the ground floor,” said the UPP. “They were sent to Loni Hospital by ambulance, where the three girls were declared dead.”
“Legal proceedings by the police are underway,” the authorities added.
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 the Indian outlet NDTV.
This detailed their love for online gaming and what appeared to be an “extreme addiction to everything Korean,” their father, Chetan Kumar, told NDTV.
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The sisters were reportedly obsessed with playing a “Korean love game” on their father’s phone before they were recently banned from using the device by their parents.
“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.
The girls reportedly expressed their upset at not being able to play the game in their suicide note.
“You tried to distance us from Koreans, but now you know how much we love Koreans,” the note read, per NDTV.
The girls’ addiction to gaming developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and caused them to skip school, before they eventually stopped going altogether two years ago, per NDTV.
“They said, ‘Papa sorry, Korea is our life, Korea is our biggest love, whatever you say, we cannot give it up,’ ” Chetan told the outlet about the note. “This should not happen to any parent or child. Parents should not let their children play games. 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 and have mentioned it in the suicide note,” Patel told NDTV.
PEOPLE has contacted the UPP for further comment.
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