Inside the Ghaziabad Triple Suicide: Family Life, Phones and a Diary of Distress
In the early hours of a February morning in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, three sisters, ages 16, 14 and 12, jumped to their deaths from their ninth-floor apartment.It’s a tragedy that has since drawn intense scrutiny from police, neighbours and mental health experts trying to understand how such a young family reached this point.
The girls were found lying together outside their home in the Bharat City housing complex. Police say the three minors jumped in succession, and all were declared dead at the scene.
What makes this case particularly unusual is not only the collective nature of the act but the complex family and personal dynamics that have emerged in its wake. The family lived together in a single flat. Their father, a local trader named Chetan Kumar, had been married twice, first to one woman and later to her younger sister, and lived with both wives and all his children under one roof.
Investigators have uncovered distressing personal writings that provide some context for the sisters’ state of mind. Police recovered an eight-page diary and handwritten notes suggesting the girls felt deeply isolated and emotionally distressed. In one note, they apologised to their father and referred to their intense interest in Korean culture and online gaming, phrases that repeatedly surface in early accounts of the case.
According to police, the girls had stopped attending school in recent years and spent long hours engrossed in their phones, watching dramas, music and playing online games. These habits intensified after the pandemic, when many children across India shifted to digital devices for both leisure and study.
In the days before the tragedy, their father reportedly took away the girls’ phones and restricted their access to online games and content, a move that appears to have sparked arguments and emotional turmoil within the home. Officers say a suicide note recovered from the scene included the words “Sorry, Papa,” though the full motivations behind the sisters’ actions remain under investigation.
Police are also examining broader family stressors. Beyond the intense digital engagement, the family was reportedly under financial strain, and local sources say domestic tensions were not uncommon. Neighbours and relatives have described a household marked by strained relationships and emotional distance, adding dimensions to the ongoing investigation.
Adding further complexity, authorities are still piecing together the significance of the father’s multiple marriages and the role, if any, this family arrangement may have played in the children’s well-being. The absence of the mother from public statements and the family’s current withdrawal from the community have also made it harder for investigators to form a complete picture.
As police continue to collect evidence, including phone records, diary entries and interviews with relatives and friends, the case has prompted wider conversations in India about digital addiction, child mental health and the pressures faced by adolescents in an increasingly connected world.
(Lead Image: AI Generated)