Father of 3 Girls Who Jumped To Death Had Rs 2 Crore Debt, Sold Off Daughters' Phones To Pay Electricity Bill

Ghaziabad: In a fresh development in the Ghaziabad triple suicide case, police sources have now found out that the father of the three girls who allegedly died by suicide after jumping from the ninth floor of their residential building, was deeply stuck in a debt trap and had a loan burden of Rs 2 crore. 

According to sources from the police, the girls' father, identified as Chetan Kumar was a stock trader. The girls reportedly did not have mobile phones because their father had allegedly sold them to pay for their electricity bill, police sources said. He stopped giving his phone to his daughters, which could have possibly offended them, the police said. There are also reports that the father may have threatened the children that he would marry them off.

Reports also indicated that the father, Chetan Kumar had two wives, the second one is the sister of his first wife. Kumar was already married for 17 years when he chose to marry for the second time.  He has a son and a daughter from his first marriage, and three daughters from his second wife. 

Elaborating on the father's poor financial situation, the police said that he could not afford to send his girls to school even after the pandemic, probably due to his huge debt burden. Chetan Kumar's 14-year-old son from his first wife is mentally challenged, the police said.

After the news of the suicide got national attention, police have started investigating the case for a wide variety of angles, starting from mobile phone addiction to getting influenced by Korean dramas, and then, a difficult family, and a staggering Rs 2 crore debt. All these factors, may have probably pushed the girls to die by suicide.

K-Dramas

According to preliminary police investigation, the sisters were deeply influenced by Korean culture, and may have been upset when their family restricted them from it. Some reports indicate that the girls were so obsessed with Korean culture that they did not even consider themselves to be Indians, and had even given each other Korean names.

Reports also indicate that the girls were influenced by some task-based online “Korean love game”. ‘Korean love games’ are ‘romance’ games where users can pose as a Korean male or a Korean female and interact with virtual partners. The girls had reportedly been playing these games for the last three years.

According to police sources, the phone data refers to a “50 tasks for 50 days” sequence. Some of these tasks allegedly challenged participants to visit isolated or eerie places at night, some of them also involved self-harm activities like drawing whale symbols on the body.

The Suicide Note

Police have recovered a diary with an eight-page suicide note from the house of the three sisters, which contained an apology to their parents. The diary mentioned that their phones had been taken away which prevented them from accessing Korean games.

"Sorry, Papa...we cannot leave Korea. Korea is our life, and you can't make us leave it. That's why we are committing suicide," the note read. In the suicide note, there were mentions of Korean culture and how much the girls loved the Korean culture.

Their last words were, “Iss dairi me jo kuch bhi likha hai vo sab padhlo quki ye sab sach hai. Read now!! I'm really sorry. Sorry papa. (Whatever is written in this diary is true. Please read it now.)”

According to the police, the girls left their bedroom at around 1.30 am and 2 am, entered the adjacent room and locked the door from the inside. Following this, they allegedly opened the window, placed a stool-like ladder near it and jumped off from the ninth floor.

ALSO READ: 'Korea Is Our Life, You Can't Make Us Leave It': Ghaziabad Sisters Express Love For Korean Culture In Last Words Before Suicide