Ghaziabad triple suicide caused by gaming or stressful home life? Chilling new details emerge

On February 4, Wednesday, three young girls jumped off the 9th floor of their building in Ghaziabad, India, dying by suicide in an episode that has caused shockwaves both in India and abroad. Initial findings – including an eight-page note – suggested the cause was gaming addiction and their parents’ moves to get them to quit.

Overnight, as the authorities dig deeper, a grimmer picture has begun to emerge. One that shows the girls being isolated; forced into an escapist world of drama, manhwa, and belonging; and abuse in family overwhelmed by debt, the fallout of a mentally compromised member, and daily strife.

Etchings on the walls of the room that formed their universe point to depression and a longing for company and connection.

Here’s a look at a comprehensive timeline of events that led to the deaths of three young siblings in the darkness of a cold morning.

Covid effect: It all began during Covid-19, when the three girls were pulled out of school. At first, it seemed because of the virulent virus that called for isolation. The thing is, when Covid bans lifted, they were never allowed to return to school. They were also never homeschooled, reports Times of India. Investigations suggest this withdrawal was caused because of financial stress. The father was a stock trader who reportedly lost money during the pandemic and then took on loans he couldn’t repay, causing a great deal of stress - his final loan amount was Rs20 million. And so the first wall of isolation was built.

Isolation at home: The girls also seemed to have a tough home life. Their father reportedly married two sisters – and sired a son and a daughter with the first wife and three daughters with the second (of them, the girl from the first marriage and two from the second are the victims). There also seemed to be a four-year-old sister, Devu, mentioned in the suicide note – whom they were not allowed to talk to about their Korean obsession, leading to further feelings to rejection. Their brother is a person of determination, say reports, causing greater financial strain on the family. And so the second wall was built.

The final fallout: Fifteen days ago, the siblings who were so involved in their games and obsessed with Korean culture that they had begun a social media account with their Korean aliases (and had being gaining a steady stream of followers), were ripped away from their mobile phones. Allegedly their father sold their phones to pay the electricity bills. The girls, who then used their mother and father’s phones to stay abreast with their K-pop interest, were stopped from using these devices. He would later tell police: “They listened to Korean music, watched Korean films, dramas, web series and cartoons. They also wanted to go to Korea. All three wanted us to accept Korean culture, but when we refused, their behaviour changed. They went into a shell and lived in their own world.”

Instead, they were threatened with ‘marriage’ – seemingly not an unrealistic outcome. (According to data by Unicef, as of 2023, one in four young women in India was married before their 18th birthday.) The third wall bricked them in.

Domestic abuse: Were they physically abused? They might have been – the note they left behind alluded to violence: “Did we live in this world to get beaten by you? Death would be better for us than beatings.” And Times of India points to a number of arguments in the house over the teens’ interests. And so, the fourth wall seemed to be closing in on them.

With a lack of connection and sense of isolation that came from being removed from the only community they knew, distress – and subsequent acting out - was perhaps only a matter of time.

And so the stage for disaster was set.

On the fateful night, the girls, say reports, were sleeping with the women in one room while the father and brother dozed off in another.

“At around 1.45am, the girls woke up on the pretext of getting water,” said Nimish Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Trans-Hindon). “They went instead to the puja room and locked it from inside.”

They used a plastic stool to get to the window. Their mum knocked on the door but they didn’t respond. What happened next has some contrary accounts. Their father, according to one report, found the eldest sibling had jumped and passed away after impact with the concrete below. The other two girls jumped later. Another report – by a neighbour – says one of the girls was determined to jump while the other two were trying to stop her before all three fell down.

Police said the girls had taken their mum’s phone before they jumped – sparking speculation about the sort of games they were playing and whether it really was a task in one of these activity-laden games that had caused the drastic measure.

They left behind an eight-page note on their distress, feelings of loneliness, and rage against their father. Among their complaints was: "We liked and loved a Korean, but you wanted to make us marry an Indian. We never expected anything like this. So that's why we are committing suicide.”

"Korean was our life, so how dare you make us leave our life? You didn't know how much we loved them. Now you've seen the proof. Now we are convinced that Korean and K-Pop are our life. We didn't love you and family as much as we loved the Korean actor and the K-Pop group. Korean was our life ..," the note, quoted by NDTV, reads.

So was it a game, an addiction that led to the fatal steps these girls took or was the obsession merely a symptom of a life of stress and lack of connection? The probe continues.