GHAZIABAD: Investigation into the suicide of three minor sisters in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad has revealed that they were depressed because their father had snatched their phones after observing that they were obsessed with the Korean culture, police said.
Due to this, the girls could not play online games and talk to their Korean friends, the police said, adding that their father later sold the phones.
On the night of the incident, they took their mother's phone, but could not access the Korean app on that device.
The forensic team, which reached the spot and seized the mobile phone, could not find any access of the Korean app.
The fingerprints, including the handwritten suicide note and the messages, have been sent to the forensic science laboratory, the report of which is still awaited, DCP (Trans Hindon) Nimish Patil told PTI on Saturday.
In 2015, the father Chetan Kumar's live-in partner died under suspicious circumstances after falling from the roof of a flat at Rajendra Nagar Colony in the Sahibabad police station area.
Later, the police dismissed the case, treating the death as a suicide, Patil told PTI.
Nishika (16), Prachi (14) and Pakhi (12) jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor of their residential tower in Bharat City Society under the Trans-Hindon police station jurisdiction earlier this week.
Interrogation has confirmed that currently, Kumar has three wives - Sujata (Nishika's mother), Heena (Prachi and Pakhi's mother) and Tina.
All three wives are biological sisters.
All three minor sisters who committed suicide were more attached to their father instead of mothers.
That is why they addressed their father in the suicide note, and nowhere they mentioned their mother's name.
Cyber crime teams are trying to trace the buyers who purchased the mobile phones through the IMEI numbers so that data of Korean apps could be relieved, DCP Patil said, and added that the police are probing the case from various angles and waiting to get the report of forensic science laboratory.
The police have maintained that the case is being treated as a suicide, and the probe is focused on verifying the father's claims regarding alleged online gaming obsession and examining all related aspects, including family circumstances.
Preliminary findings, which include a nine-page pocket diary recovered from the room of the sisters on Thursday, point to an intense attachment to the Korean culture and alleged family discord.
Patil said one mobile phone was purchased by Kumar for Nishika about three months ago, and another for Prachi around 15 days ago.
The three sisters were cremated at Delhi's Nigam Bodh Ghat on Wednesday evening.
(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050, Tele Manas - 14416 (available 24x7) or iCall, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline - 02225521111, which is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.)
