17-year-old JEE aspirant hangs self in Kota

KOTA: A 17-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room here, the fifteenth case of suspected suicide this year by students taking classes at this coaching hub, police said on Saturday. Bhadur Singh's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room in the Mahaveer Nagar area here on Saturday morning, they added.

A resident of Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh, Singh came here over two months ago. He was a student of Class 11 preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at a coaching institute here. The boy allegedly hanged himself to death in his hostel room on Friday night, Mahaveer Nagar Circle Inspector Paramjeet Patel said. On Saturday morning, one of Singh's friends spotted his body hanging from the ceiling fan and informed the caretaker. On being informed, the police reached the hostel and recovered the body after breaking into the room which was locked from the inside, Patel said.

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Singh was reportedly absent from his coaching classes for the last 3-4 days, he added. 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, Patel said. The reason behind the alleged suicide is yet to be ascertained, the CI said, adding that no suicide note was recovered from his room. The body has been kept in a mortuary and a post-mortem will be conducted once his family members arrive, he added.

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The latest incident is suspected the fifteenth suicide case by a coaching student in Kota this year so far. Last year, at least 15 coaching students died by suicide. More than 2.25 lakh students are estimated to be taking classes in various coaching centres in the city this academic session to crack entrance exams of medical and engineering colleges. The repeated suicides by students in the coaching hub despite multiple measures by government and non-government agencies have started ringing an alarm bell for all the stakeholders and parents.

Stressful preparation for the entrance examination, high expectations from parents and unwanted distractions have been reported as the common reasons behind suicides by coaching students here, said Kunhari Circle Officer DSP Shankar Lal, who is also part of the students' help desk.