17-year-old JEE aspirant from Bihar hangs self in Kota

KOTA: A 17-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room here, the second case of suspected suicide in 48 hours by students taking classes at this coaching hub, police said on Saturday. Bhargav Mishra's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his paying guest room in the Mahaveer Nagar area here around 8.30 pm on Friday, they added. This is the eighteenth case of suspected suicide so far this year by coaching students preparing for competitive examinations here.

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A resident of Champaran district in Bihar, Mishra came here in March this year. He was a student of Class 12 preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at a coaching institute here. The boy allegedly hanged himself to death in his room in Mahaveer Nagar-III here sometime around Friday noon, DSP Harshraj Singh said on Saturday morning. The incident came to light when Mishra, who was last seen around 11 am on Friday, did not answer the repeated phone calls from his parents, following which the paying guest caretaker went to his room and found the door bolted from inside, Singh said. When Mishra did not respond to his several calls, the caretaker reported the matter to the police who reached the spot around 8 .30 pm and broke the room open only to find the boy hanging from the ceiling fan, he added.

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The reason behind the alleged suicide is yet to be ascertained, the DSP said, adding that no suicide note was recovered from his room. Police are trying to gather more details about him and obtain his performance sheet from the coaching institute to assess his scoring status and regularity in the class, Singh said. The body has been kept in the mortuary of New Medical College Hospital for the post-mortem which will be conducted once the teenager's family members arrive here, the DSP added. On the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, a 17-year-old NEET aspirant allegedly committed suicide by wrapping his face with a plastic bag in Rajasthan’s Kota, police said.

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The body of the victim, Manjot Chabra, a resident of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, was found in his hostel room in the Vigyan Nagar area on Thursday morning. However, Chabra's parents alleged their son was murdered and have lodged a case against six people, including a classmate of the boy and the hostel owner. Last year, at least 15 cases of suicide by coaching students were reported in this coaching hub. Over 2 lakh students living in over 25,000 paying guest rooms and 3,500 hostels are currently taking coaching for entrance exams in various coaching institutes here.