Tragic Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Incident Highlights Rising Concerns Over iPhone EMI Debt and Easy Credit Traps
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra:
A dispute over the repayment of an iPhone instalment ended in a devastating family tragedy in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district on Friday, after an 18-year-old man and both his parents died following a prolonged crisis at a hill near Tisgaon.
Police said the young man, identified in reports as Kunal Chandgude/Chandwade, had purchased an iPhone and was reportedly struggling to meet the instalment payments. An argument over money with his father, Murlidhar, 48, preceded the teenager's decision to leave home and travel to the hill in the Tisgaon area, which falls under the Waluj MIDC police station jurisdiction. His mother was identified as Sangeeta. Reports differ over Kunal's age, with some identifying him as 18 and others as 19.
Three-hour rescue effort ends in tragedy
According to police and eyewitness accounts cited by local media, Kunal reached the hill at about 10 a.m. and remained close to the cliff edge. His parents followed him after learning of the situation, while villagers, police personnel and fire brigade teams joined the effort to persuade him to return to safety.
The standoff continued for nearly three hours. Firefighters reportedly attempted to position a safety net below the cliff, but the operation was complicated by the teenager's movement along the edge. Local residents and police repeatedly appealed to him to step away from the danger.
Sanjay Jadhav, a former Tisgaon sarpanch who was among those attempting to intervene, told reporters that people tried several ways to persuade Kunal to reconsider. At one point, locals reportedly even offered to arrange an iPhone for him. Despite the appeals, he remained distressed and continued threatening to end his life.
Around 1 p.m., Murlidhar moved closer to his son in an attempt to bring him away from the cliff. According to police accounts reported by the media, Kunal fell and his father also fell while attempting to save him. Sangeeta subsequently fell from the hill as well.
All three died. Police recovered the bodies from the difficult terrain and sent them for post-mortem examination. Investigators are continuing to establish the precise sequence of events.
Videos capture the desperate final moments
Videos recorded during the incident have since circulated widely on social media. News reports say footage shows family members and others desperately attempting to persuade Kunal to move away from the cliff.
Another video that surfaced later showed Kunal with his mother in happier circumstances, illustrating the contrast between ordinary family life and the crisis that unfolded on the hill. Because such footage concerns a fatal incident and a suicide crisis, its circulation also raises questions about the ethics of repeatedly sharing distressing images and videos of victims.
Police have not publicly confirmed that Kunal had a diagnosed mental-health condition. The available reporting establishes that the immediate dispute concerned repayment of the phone's instalments, but it does not establish that the EMI itself was the sole cause of the deaths. That distinction is important: a financial dispute can be an immediate trigger without explaining the wider emotional or psychological circumstances behind a crisis.
India's smartphone market is increasingly credit-driven
The tragedy has nevertheless renewed attention on the way expensive consumer electronics are increasingly purchased through financing.
A 2026 industry analysis cited by Moneycontrol found that financing had become a significant part of India's smartphone market. During the 2024 festive season, about 33% of smartphone sales were backed by financing, while the proportion was around 52% in the premium segment priced above ₹30,000. The report also noted that EMI availability has expanded well beyond the traditional high-end market.
Premiumisation is occurring even as the overall smartphone market faces pressure. According to a report citing CMR India's Q2 2026 mobile handset review, India's smartphone market declined 10% year-on-year in the quarter, while the super-premium segment grew 72%.
Apple has also strengthened its position in India's premium smartphone market. Reuters reported in 2025, citing Counterpoint Research, that Apple held a 55% share of India's premium smartphone market, defined in that report as devices priced above $520.
These trends demonstrate the commercial importance of financing and premium devices, but they do not by themselves prove that EMI schemes cause financial distress or suicidal behaviour.
What an EMI can conceal
The attraction of an EMI is straightforward: a large purchase is converted into a smaller recurring payment. But the monthly figure can make an expensive product appear more affordable than it actually is.
For a household with limited disposable income, the relevant question is not simply whether the monthly instalment can technically be paid. It is whether the payment remains manageable after rent, food, education, healthcare, transport, existing loans and unexpected expenses are taken into account.
This distinction becomes particularly important when multiple purchases are financed simultaneously. A phone EMI may appear manageable in isolation; several EMIs, credit-card balances and other forms of consumer credit can create a much larger monthly obligation.
The Indian financial system already recognises the need for lenders to provide clearer information and assess repayment capacity. RBI rules for digital lending require regulated entities to disclose the annual percentage rate (APR) and provide borrowers with a standardised Key Fact Statement (KFS) before a digital loan contract is executed.
RBI guidance also requires transparency around charges and repayment-related information. For EMI-based floating-rate personal loans, lenders are required to consider repayment capacity and communicate the potential effect of changes in interest rates on EMIs or loan tenure.
In 2024, the central bank also announced a public repository intended to help consumers verify whether digital lending apps are associated with regulated entities.
The bigger issue is not the phone alone
Consumer-finance specialists have long warned that easy access to credit can change the psychology of purchasing. A customer who cannot comfortably pay ₹70,000 or ₹80,000 upfront may nevertheless feel able to buy the same device when the price is presented as a relatively small monthly instalment.
For younger consumers, the calculation can also extend beyond utility. Smartphones are communication devices, entertainment platforms, cameras and increasingly visible markers of lifestyle. Social-media exposure can amplify comparisons between individuals, particularly when expensive devices are repeatedly presented as symbols of success or belonging.
But experts caution against reducing a complex mental-health crisis to consumerism.
The Maharashtra tragedy illustrates how dangerous that simplification can be. The phone and its repayment reportedly formed the backdrop to the argument, but the available evidence does not establish a simple causal chain from an iPhone purchase to the deaths.
Calls for responsible lending and responsible consumption
The incident is likely to intensify calls for greater scrutiny of consumer financing, particularly where expensive discretionary purchases are converted into easy monthly credit.
For lenders and retailers, the focus is likely to remain on transparent disclosure of the true cost of borrowing, clear information about penalties and repayment obligations, and responsible assessment of whether a credit product is appropriate for the customer.
For consumers, financial advisers generally recommend calculating the total monthly debt burden, rather than judging affordability from an EMI advertisement alone.
And for families, the incident offers a much more difficult lesson: when a financial argument escalates into an emotional crisis, the priority must shift immediately from the purchase or payment dispute to keeping the person safe and bringing in trained help.
The deaths at Khavdya Dongar were not simply the story of an expensive phone. They were the result of a rapidly escalating family crisis in which financial pressure, emotion and a life-threatening situation collided. The tragedy underscores why India's expanding consumer-credit ecosystem must be accompanied by financial literacy, responsible lending and stronger awareness of mental-health emergencies.
Important note: Claims circulating online that a specific percentage of all iPhone sales are financed through EMI, or that premium smartphone EMIs have a particular average tenure, should be treated cautiously unless the underlying retailer, lender or industry dataset is identified. The available evidence supports the broader conclusion that financing is increasingly important in India's premium smartphone market, but does not substantiate all of the statistics in the original copy.