17-year-old JEE aspirant hangs self in Kota, 3rd suicide case in coaching hub this month

KOTA: A 17-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room here, the third case of suspected suicide in last two weeks by students taking classes at this coaching hub, police said on Friday. Manish Prajapat's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room in the Mahaveer Nagar area here on Thursday evening, they added.

This is the ninteenth case of suspected suicide so far this year by coaching students preparing for competitive examinations here. A resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Prajapat came here around a year ago and was preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at a coaching institute here. Earlier this week, Prajapat's father came here to meet him and stayed with him for five days before leaving for home on Thursday afternoon. The boy took the extreme step only a few hours after his father left, an officer at the Jawahar Nagar police station said. The teen reportedly took dinner at the hostel's mess in the evening and returned to his room at around 7 pm on Thursday.

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His father, who was on his way to Azamgarh by train, asked the hostel's caretaker to check on his son when did not respond to his repeated calls, the police officer said. On peeping through the window, the caretaker found Prajapat hanging from the fan using a bed sheet, following which he informed the police, he added. The police rushed to the spot and recovered the body and placed it in mortuary. The post-mortem was conducted after the arrival of his father who returned Kota midway from home, the officer said. The deceased's body was handed over to his family members after post-mortem on Friday morning, he added.

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DSP Ghanshyam Meena said stress from studies appeared to be the reason behind the alleged suicide by the teen as he was reportedly weak in studies. Prajapat was scoring poorly in the routine tests by his coaching institute and was also irregular in classes, Meena said. However, no suicide note has been recovered, the DSP said, adding that the exact reason of the teen's death would be clear only after the receipt of the post-mortem report and further inquiry in the matter. The growing number of suicides by students taking classes at this coaching hub has once again rang an alarm bell among parents, teachers, hostel owners, and authorities.

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In the other two similar incidents this month, 17-year-old Manjot Chabra, a NEET aspirant from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, and Bhargav Mishra (17), an JEE aspirant from Champaran in Bihar, allegedly died by suicide in their respective hostel rooms in Vigyan Nagar and Mahaveer Nagar on August 3 and 4. However, Chabra's parents have alleged that their son was killed and lodged a case of murder against six persons, including a minor classmate, hostel manager and the 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.