Another NEET aspirant dies by suicide in Kota, fourth case this month

KOTA: In a fourth case of suspected suicide by a NEET aspirant this month, a 16-year-old student was found hanging in his hostel room in the Kunhari area here, police said on Thursday. The body of the deceased, Aryan, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room at Kamla Udhyan in Landmark City on Wednesday night, they added.

Aryan, who hailed from Bihar's Nalanda district, was a student of class 12 preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) at a coaching institute here for over a year. Aryan had returned to Kota from his hometown after the annual break only last month, Kunhari Circle Officer DSP Shankar Lal said. The boy reportedly attended the last class on Tuesday and skipped Wednesday's class and stayed in his hostel room, Kunhari Circle Inspector Ganga Sahay Sharma said.

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Aryan's parents informed the hostel warden when their son did not receive their repeated phone calls. On going to his room around 9 pm, the warden found the door bolted from inside and informed the police, Sharma said. The police broke the door and recovered the body, hanging from the ceiling fan, and placed it in a mortuary for the post-mortem which will be conducted once his parents arrive, he added.

The fan in the hostel room was not equipped with an anti-suicide device, violating the guidelines set by the Kota district administration and Kota Hostel Association to check such incidents in hostels, DSP Lal said. Prima facie, distraction from studies due to a relationship with a girl appears to be the reason behind the suicide, the DSP said. The police recovered love letters written to a girl from the victim's room, he said.

"Aryan's performance sheet is yet to be obtained from the coaching institute to assess his scoring status and regularity in the class," Lal added. The latest incident is suspectedly the fourth suicide case by a coaching student in Kota this month and the ninth this year so far.

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The last two suicide cases were also reported in the Kunhari area where a 17-year-old NEET aspirant from Patna in Bihar, identified as Navlesh (17), was found hanging in his room at Krishna Vihar on May 12 and another NEET aspirant, Dhanesh Kumar Sharma (15) from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, hanged himself to death in the on May 11.

Mohammed Nasid (22), a NEET aspirant and resident of Bengaluru ended his life by jumping from the tenth floor of a multistory building in Vigyan Nagar area on May 8. Last year, 15 coaching students died by suicide in the coaching hub. 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.