A TWISTED gaming app is feared to have driven three sisters to their deaths after they fell from a ninth floor balcony.
Police are probing a mysterious “love game” reportedly loved by youngsters which gives players shady in-game tasks to complete.
Three young sisters aged between 12 to 16 died after reportedly jumping from the balcony of their parent’s flat after becoming hooked on a mysterious Korean video game.
Indian police chief Atul Kumar Singh said half-sisters Nishika, 16, Prachi, 14, and Pakhi, 12, were addicted to a Korean task-based interactive “love game”.
Although unconfirmed by police, local media claim it could have been a game called “We are not Indians”.
The game is believed to feature players having to complete different tasks which can often involve emotional storylines which can blur the line of what is real and fake.
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This immerses them into an online world which involves new surroundings, people and activities.
South Korean-born psychotherapist Jookyoung Kim told The Sun that “love games” are among some of the most addictive for youngsters.
She said: “Online games can offer psychological rewards such as a sense of achievement, a sense of control, and distraction from stress by allowing players to progress through tasks and levels.
“This can activate the brain’s reward and reinforcement systems.
“When these rewards are tied to relationships – such as experiences of feeling chosen, approval, or affection – the brain could register them as emotional validation more than mere entertainment.
“This would be why games that reward emotional attachment, such as ‘love games’, can become particularly addictive.”
Jookyoung added: “For someone who feels lonely, isolated, or emotionally unsupported offline, the game may partially substitute for real-world sources of emotional validation and connection.”
Investigations into the death of the young trio are ongoing with detectives analysing a heartbreaking note found scribbled inside a diary of one of the sisters.
It read: “Sorry, Papa, I am really sorry. You tried to distance us from Koreans, but now you know how much we love Koreans.”
“We didn’t love you and family as much as we loved the Korean actor and the K-Pop group. Korean was our life,” another note read.
The girls had dropped out of school during the Covid pandemic and had quickly become addicted to playing games online for the last two-and-a-half to three years.
During this time, they developed a deep fascination with Korea and even believed they lived in the East Asian nation.
The sisters grew to see themselves as “Korean princesses” rather than Indian schoolgirls thanks to their in-game personas, according to cops.
They even identified themselves with Korean names – Maria, Aliza, and Cindy, social media accounts revealed.
Grieving dad Chetan Kumar said through tears after his daughter’s deaths: “They had told me, ‘Papa, we cannot leave Korea. Korea is our life.
“Korea is everything to us. You cannot separate us from it. We will give up our lives’.”
Days after the chilling comments to Chetan, the girls went to the ninth floor balcony of their home and fell to their deaths.
Forensic psychologist Deepti Puranik said that when a person’s life begins to revolve around the game it can quickly cause grave issues.
She told NDTV: “Their identity as an individual collapses. They may experience complete emotional isolation that can lead to them taking extreme steps.”
Harrowing reports say security guards and neighbours heard the thud of the girls as they hit the ground.
Piercing screams from those who witnessed the overnight horrors were loud enough to wake the whole apartment complex.
Onlookers claimed that one of the girls appeared determined to jump as the other two momentarily tried to pull her away from the ledge.
All three ended up falling headfirst and were rushed to hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Forensic teams are now analysing the girls’ mobile phones to try identify the exact game they were addicted to and how it works.
Protecting children online
HERE are the best tips to help keep kids safe when online, according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
- Follow age requirements – Many popular apps, sites and games are 13+, it’s important to check and enforce these
- Speak to phone providers – If your child owns their own smartphone then contact the service provider to make sure it is registered as a child’s device
- Go through phone and app settings with your child to help manage their safety and wellbeing
- Have regular safety conversations with your children
- Revisit parental controls – You will likely need to revisit your parental controls and adjust them as the kids age.
- Explore healthy habits together – This could be agreeing to charge devices away from beds and not using devices during mealtimes.
If your child asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, or speaks to you about a negative experience they had online, here are some of things you could do:
- Visit the NSPCC online safety hub: nspcc.org.uk/onlinesafety.
- Call the NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000 to speak to an advisor.
- Ask another parent.
- Speak to your child’s teacher.
- If your child needs more support, they can contact Childline: childline.org.uk.
“It is evident that the girls were highly addicted to mobile phone usage,” police chief Rajeev Krishna said.
Investigators are probing one theory that the sisters may have been attempting to complete a final or “50th task” on the game.
Police sources say the diary entries suggest the girls may have jumped as part of a mission on the game and not considered any real-world consequences.
Another line of enquiry claims the girls may have taken their own lives after realising they would “fail” the mission after losing access to their phones.
Clinical psychologist Shweta Sharma said children start out in such games with a “curiosity to prove something under peer pressure”
“At each stage of the game, there is a constant need to prove yourself,” she told India’s NDTV.
“These children cannot understand proper emotional regulation. They have a strong need to be seen, need to be acknowledged.
“People are not going outside now. Parents don’t have time. Emotional availability is definitely not there.
“We are providing children with all the facilities without understanding whether they are able to handle it or not.
“In Korean culture, if you see any series, any game… they are made mostly on the basis of friendship, love and belonging.”
Tragic diary entries showed they also played four horror games regularly.
Poppy Playtime, The Baby in Yellow, Evil Nun: The Scary Horror Game and Ice Scream were all referenced in the diary, according to Times of India.
These are popular Indian games and are believed to be unrelated to the “love game” mentioned by police.
Poppy Playtime is a game similar to Five Nights At Freddy’s for Western audiences.
Players take up the role of a former employee returning to an abandoned toy factory which is now overrun by evil animated toys.
Gamers have to evade being caught by the toys by solving puzzles in order to stay alive.
The Baby in Yellow features an eerie soundtrack and several jump scares during the gameplay as players complete routine tasks as a babysitter while paranormal events occur.
Evil Nun is among the most disturbing games mentioned by the half-sisters.
Set inside a zombie-infected school, players must solve puzzles to save trapped kids being held under a nun’s spell.
Ice Scream sees an ice cream man kidnapping children and freezing them in the back of his truck.
Players must unlock clues by sneaking around the town to save the kids.
All four games appear to have similar themes of kidnapping, fantasy settings and the idea of escaping.
DANGERS OF GAMING ADDICTIONS
Zaheen Ahmed, Director of Addiction Therapy at the UK Addiction Treatment (UKAT) group told The Sun that a gaming addiction can be just as impactful as any other kind of long-term issue like drugs or gambling.
Zaheen said: “Don’t think that the power of gaming is just nothing. It impacts a person the same as gambling, it’s that psychological reward they crave.
“People’s life can become gaming and it can become disruptive.”
Looking at the tragic sisters, the mental health and addiction expert says it is likely the trio were going through a state of withdrawal.
Dad Chetan Kumar says he recently took his little girls’ phones away and restricted any access to their games after feeling they had become too addicted.
Zaheen continued: “When their parents take away their devices and tell them not to engage, it then creates a withdrawal.
“They think their life has stopped.
“These girls were using games as their drug of choice so then when that was disrupted eventually it appears they took their own lives in response.”
He added: “When someone is really, really hooked on something, they can do a drastic act.”
Zaheen went on to say that the issue of gaming addictions is “like a tsunami on its way” to the West with the issue currently being kept “under the shadows”.
How to get help
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
Gaming addictions are surging across the globe – especially among young people – with the number of kids referred for treatment in the UK increasing by 500 per cent in just six years.
A staggering 121 children were sent to a dedicated unit for video-game obsessed teens between 2024 and 2025 – with over half of them receiving treatment.
“It hasn’t reached us yet, however, it is on the rise across the world with this example in India and it will soon come to the West,” Zaheen warned.
Several chilling online games have been linked to the deaths of hundreds of children in the past.
The disturbing Momo challenge encouraged youngsters to hurt or kill themselves through online tasks or else they will be cursed.
It closely resembled the Blue Whale trend which was a dangerous social media game linked to at least 130 teen deaths across Russia.
Both are similar to the Doki Doki Literature Club game which included themes of suicide and was blamed for driving players to their deaths.
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