THREE sisters who fell from a ninth floor balcony after their parents confiscated their phones scrawled haunting words on the bedroom wall before they died.
Nishika, 16, Prachi, 14 and Pakhi, 12, were found dead at the base of their apartment building in the early hours of Wednesday morning, reportedly over concerns they were addicted to a Korean gaming app.
Pictures taken from inside their bedroom show creepy writing on a wall including: “I am very very alone” and “make me a hert of broken (sic)”.
The tragedy unfolded around 2.15am, as their parents slept – the sisters’ screams loud enough to wake the whole apartment complex in Bharat City society, near Delhi, India.
The security guards and neighbours then heard the thud as the girls fell to the ground.
By the time their parents broke down the door of the bedroom, all the girls had already plunged to their death.
Two of the sisters reportedly may have fallen accidentally while attempting to hold the third sister back.
Police found the girls on the ground floor with injuries before they were rushed by an ambulance to a hospital and later pronounced dead.
Cops also found a suicide note as well as a diary with an eight-page note detailing their gaming activities and love for the Korean culture.
The note reads “Sorry, Papa, I am really sorry,” along with a crying-face emoji.
The note also read: “You tried to distance us from Koreans, but now you know how much we love Koreans.”
The girls had assumed Korean names – Cindy, Maria, and Aliza – and also left a list of other art and culture forms that they were obsessed with, including Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and English music and movies, The Daily Mail reported.
“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 continued.
Their parents had managed to shield their fourth sister, Devu, from their obsessive behaviour, which the girls resented.
“You introduced her to Bollywood, which we hated more than our lives,” it read.
“We made a decision and made Devu our enemy, because no one at home allowed her to be like us
“So, from that day on, we separated Devu from ourselves and told her that we are Korean and K-Pop, and you are Indian and Bollywood.”
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EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
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They also wrote of the disgust they would feel at having to marry within their Indian culture.
“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,” the note read.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Atul Kumar Singh told local media that the sisters were addicted to a Korean task-based interactive “love game”.
The name of the mystery game has not been revealed by police but local media said it was an app called We are not Indians.
“Their parents had restricted their mobile phone usage for the past few days, which left them distressed. This may have triggered the decision to take the extreme step,” Singh said.
Their dad Chetan Kumar said that the girls, who had dropped out of school during the Covid-19 pandemic, had been playing the game for the last two-and-a-half to three years.
“I did not know that this game involved such tasks. I came to know about all this only after the police forensic team examined their mobile phones,” Kumar said.
Kumar continued: “Prachi had once told him she was the ‘boss’ and that her sisters followed her directions.”
He also said that the girls were influenced by the Korean culture and often said they wanted to visit the Asian nation.
“My wife was sleeping in the inner room. The girls woke up on the pretext of drinking water, bolted the door from inside and jumped from the balcony,” he told media.
“The note read 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.
“I urge parents to not let their children play video games.”
Investigators have continued to examine the girls’ digital activity and speaking with family members.
Top state police Rajeev Krishna said that the “whole case is being examined in detail”.
Kumar was married twice, to two sisters, and had five children. He has a surviving son and a daughter.
India has one of the world’s largest smartphone user bases but lacks government oversight on usage by children.
In 2017, a 17-year-old girl, who had carved a “Blue Whale” into her arm, was rescued after she jumped off a cliff in western Rajasthan state.
She had told the police that she was asked to “complete the task” or her mother would die.
