Social media addiction has claimed the lives of three sisters, all aged below 16 years, when they jumped off their balcony on the ninth floor, one by one, on an early Wednesday morning, February 4, in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad.
The sisters – aged 12, 14 and 16 – resided with their parents in Bharat City, an apartment complex. They bolted the balcony door and jumped out of a window. Their screams and loud thuds of their bodies alerted their parents, neighbours and security guards.
Before taking their lives, they left an eight-page handwritten suicide note addressed to their father saying, “Sorry, Papa.”
“Is diary me jo kuch bhi likha hai woh sab padh lo kyuki ye sab sach hai (Read everything written in this diary because all of it is true). Read now. I’m really sorry. Sorry, Papa,” the note read, accompanied by a hand-drawn crying emoji.
The sisters got addicted to an interactive Korean game during the COVID-19 lockdown and had reportedly stopped attending school for the last two years. They did everything together – from bathing to eating.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Nimish Patel, the diary details their obsession with Korean culture. The sisters religiously followed K-pop and Korean movies, music, short films, shows and series.
Seeing their extreme social media consumption, their parents decided to deny phone access. “This restriction appeared to have affected them,” the senior police officer said.
“Korea is our life, Korea is our biggest love. Whatever you say, we cannot give it up. So we are killing ourselves,” read the note.
Police also said that their father, Chetan Kumar, is married to two sisters and lives with both wives and their children, all daughters. “Two of the girls who died were daughters of one wife and the third was their half-sister,” police said.
An inconsolable Chetan Kumar said this should not happen to any parent.
At 2 am, Arun Singh, a resident of Bharat City, was standing on his balcony, ready to go to bed after a long day of work. As he was resting, he saw someone sitting on another balcony, trying to jump.
Speaking to NDTV, Singh said due to the darkness and proximity, he was unable to figure out if the person was a man or a woman.
“I couldn’t figure out if it was a man or a woman since I was standing at a distance. I called my wife and said that someone was trying to jump and I should do something. My partner suggested that it must be a marital dispute,” Arun told NDTV.
“I thought it was a couple; a man trying to jump while the wife was trying to stop him,” he added.
Minutes later, he got a clear picture of the tragedy that was about to unfold. “A small girl came and hugged the person sitting on the railing tightly. Before I could get my phone and call someone to stop the person from jumping, all three – the person sitting on the railing and two girls trying to pull them down – fell off the balcony. One of them seemed determined to jump while the two others were trying to save them, but all three fell headfirst,” he said.
He further said it took one hour for the ambulance to arrive. “In a country where pizza, burgers, and groceries are delivered in 10 minutes, it took an ambulance an hour to arrive. It is a sad reality.”
This post was last modified on February 4, 2026 8:05 pm