Ghaziabad sisters’ deaths: Third wife, conflicting claims and an old fall resurface as probe widens

Chetan Kumar said that they were not aware what the girls were going through

• Three sisters died after falling from a ninth-floor apartment in Ghaziabad.
• Police investigate family, financial issues, and online gaming connections.
• Suicide case investigated, considering various angles and past incidents.

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The most recent thread in the investigation into the deaths of three minor sisters in Ghaziabad now centres on an unusual family structure and contradictions in statements given to police.

As officers continue to question relatives and examine documents, details about three marriages, a live-in relationship claim, and an earlier unexplained fall have come under scrutiny.

The three girls, aged 16, 14, and 12, died after falling from the ninth floor of their apartment in Bharat City Society under the Trans-Hindon police station limits last week.

Police are treating the case as suicide for now, even as they probe multiple angles -- including online gaming, mounting debts, and family tensions.

Three wives, shifting timelines

Chetan Kumar, father of the three girls, resides in Bharat City Society in Ghaziabad with three women -- Sujata, Heena, and Tina. According to police, with Sujata, he has a daughter and a son who is mentally challenged. With Heena, who is Sujata’s sister, he has two daughters. The three girls who died were the daughters of Sujata and Heena.

His third wife, Tina, 22, has a three-year-old daughter with him.

“She was a Muslim who agreed to convert to Hinduism for the marriage… The other two wives say they consented to the third marriage, which took place in 2023,” said Atul Kumar Singh, ACP, Shalimar Garden.

Investigators, however, have flagged inconsistencies in the timeline Chetan initially shared. He earlier told police that he married Sujata in 2010 and Heena in 2013, stating that he remarried because Sujata could not conceive.

But officers questioned how his eldest daughter with Sujata is now 16 if that timeline were accurate.

He had also introduced Tina during questioning as his sister-in-law rather than his wife, a claim that has since been contradicted by other accounts.

Authorities are attempting to gather documentation to establish the chronology of the marriages. “Both Sujata and Heena are uneducated. They cannot even recall their wedding dates and say they do not know anything about their official marriage documents,” Singh said.

Live-in partner claim, earlier death revisited

The investigation has also brought attention to an earlier fatal incident involving the family. Vinod Kumar, father of Sujata and Heena, recalled that about six to seven years ago, on the birthday of Chetan’s eldest daughter, another of his daughters, Aanchal, had visited Chetan’s residence in Shalimar Garden.

She allegedly slipped while removing clothes from the balcony and fell from the third floor, dying on the spot.

No police complaint was filed at the time. The family considered it an accident.

However, according to PTI, Aanchal was Chetan’s live-in partner.

The maternal grandfather of the three deceased girls, Dilip, also spoke to reporters about the broader family. He said he had 14 children -- 11 daughters and three sons. His eldest son, Deepu, has been missing for nearly 12 years, with no information about his whereabouts.

He said Sujata was the eldest among his daughters and had been married to Chetan around 17 to 18 years ago. Since she initially did not conceive, another daughter, Heena, was married to Chetan later, he claimed. Of the remaining daughters, seven are married. Two -- Neha and Tanya -- are unmarried. Neha, he said, lives in Chetan’s house, while Tanya stays with him.

Financial distress and sold phones

Police say the family had been grappling with severe financial difficulties. The girls had left school several years ago after Chetan’s business collapsed. He is described as a trader by profession.

Despite living in a three-bedroom apartment, the entire household slept in a single room. When asked how three girls could leave late at night without anyone noticing, Singh said it did not appear unusual. “It was part of their routine. They stayed awake till late, talked, played games, and always stayed together. No one noticed anything suspicious that night,” he said.

The girls had two mobile phones, both of which were sold before the incident. Police said one handset was sold six months ago, and the other about 15 days prior to their deaths.

“We are trying to track the two phones,” Singh said. “Once phones are sold, they are usually formatted. After formatting, the chances of recovering data are very low, but we are running the IMEI numbers.”

Cyber units are examining whether the devices contained any Korean applications that the girls were reportedly drawn to.

Diary entries and online game claims

A nine-page pocket diary recovered from the sisters’ room has provided what police described as a window into their emotional state. According to investigators, the diary reflected their strong interest in Korean culture as well as stress linked to domestic discord and financial strain.

Initial inquiries have not established the use of any Korean task-based application, police said.

After the incident, Chetan claimed his daughters had been playing a Korean game for nearly three years and had stopped attending school because of it.

The maternal grandfather has publicly appealed for action. “I fold my hands before the government and request that the game be banned, so that no more such deaths or suicides happen,” Dilip said.

Protests over online gaming

The case has sparked demonstrations in parts of Delhi. In West Delhi’s Subhash Nagar, members of a political outfit protested against online games and demanded restrictions for minors.

“These online games are destroying children's futures and pushing them on the brink of suicide,” said Paramjit Singh Pamma, president of the National Akali Dal.

He called for stronger regulation. “There should be a restriction mode in these games so that even if children try to access them, they cannot do so without their parents' permission,” he added.

Police stance

DCP (Trans Hindon) Nimish Patil told PTI that forensic teams have seized phones and sent fingerprints and handwritten material for laboratory examination. Reports are awaited.

Police have reiterated that the matter is being handled as a suicide case at present. Officers continue to question family members and examine earlier incidents connected to the household, including the previous balcony fall.

As investigators sift through conflicting statements, missing documentation, and digital trails that may no longer exist, the deaths of the three sisters have widened into a probe that stretches beyond one tragic night -- into the layered history of a family now under intense scrutiny.