The father of three minor sisters who allegedly jumped to their deaths from a ninth-floor flat here on Wednesday said he was unaware that the game they were playing involved "tasks," but added that his daughters had repeatedly said that they wanted to go to Korea.
Chetan Kumar, father of Nishika (16), Prachi (14) and Pakhi (12), told PTI Videos, "They had been playing the game for two-and-a-half to three years.
"They often said they wanted to go to Korea. 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.
The police received information around 2.15 am that three girls had jumped off the balcony of a ninth-floor flat in a tower of Bharat City under the Teela Mor police station limits in the Sahibabad area.
On reaching the spot, the police found that the girls had fallen to the ground floor and suffered fatal injuries. They were rushed by an ambulance to a hospital in Loni, where doctors declared them dead on arrival.
Recounting the sequence of events, Kumar said the family was asleep at the time. "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 said.
He said the girls had mobile phones with them, but he did not notice them immediately. "They threw the phones outside the room. The police later seized them for investigation," he added.
Asked whether he ever tried to stop his daughters from gaming, Kumar said he had no idea about the nature of the game. "If I had known that such tasks existed, no father would ever allow his children to be part of it," he said.
Kumar said he later learned that the game involved instructions which the children followed. He recalled that Prachi had once told him she was the 'boss' and that her sisters followed her directions. "I thought it was just like the games we played in childhood. I never imagined this could happen," he said.
Kumar said the three sisters did everything together -- eating, bathing and spending time -- and mostly remained confined to their room.
He added that the girls had not attended school for the past two to three years after failing academically, which made them feel embarrassed and increasingly withdrawn.
Police have said the sisters were "influenced" by Korean content and were highly "addicted" to mobile phone usage and an online Korean task-based interactive game.
Investigators also recovered a diary containing a handwritten note that read, "Sorry, Papa, I am really sorry," along with a crying-face emoji.
The police said the exact circumstances leading to the incident are still being investigated, and statements of family members are being recorded.