NEET aspirant hangs self in Kota; father alleges exam 'scam'

NEW DELHI: A 21-year-old student preparing for NEET-UG in Kota allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of a rented room in a house on Wednesday night. This is the 14th case of suicide by a student in the coaching hub Kota this year since January, while 26 cases of death by suicide were reported in the city in 2023.

The father of the deceased held the alleged NEET-24 exam scam responsible for the extreme step taken by the youth. However, he did not level any allegation in the report to the police in the matter. No suicide note was recovered from the room in which the student stayed.

The deceased, identified as Parshuram Jatav (21), a resident of Barsana in Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, last spoke to his father on Wednesday around 1.15 pm and expressed his wish to return home. His father, Khacharmal, asked him to come back home.

However, the son did not attend to his calls after that. The incident came to light around 11 pm on Wednesday night when the house owner knocked on the youth's room door after he failed to notice him since the evening.

The caretaker informed the police, who rushed to the spot, broke the room door open, recovered the body and placed it in the mortuary of MBS hospital. Khacharmal, who works as a mason, reached Kota on Thursday morning.

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While speaking to media outside the mortuary here, he held the NEET-UG-24 exam 'scam' responsible for the extreme step taken by his son. He said it was his son's second attempt in the NEET-24 exam, and he had scored 647 marks in the first result, but in the revision results, his marks were reduced to 247 (66%), which left him depressed, his father told PTI outside the mortuary on Thursday.

"The NEET exam agency and rich people, who manipulated the NEET exam, killed my son," he said. Khacharmal claimed that his son was outstanding in studies and scored marks that rewarded him a scholarship from a coaching institute in Kota.

Parshuram had studied earlier in Kota for two years and returned again five-six days ago to prepare for the third attempt at NEET. To that end, he secured admission in a coaching institute in Kota, Khacharmal added.

The police are yet to find out the trigger behind Parshuram committing suicide. "No suicide note was recovered from the room and the reason behind the extreme step is yet to be investigated," assistant sub-inspector at Jawahar Nagar police station Jawahar Singh said.

The body was handed over to family members after post-mortem on Thursday noon and the police lodged a case under section 194 of BNS for investigation in the matter, circle inspector at Jawahar Nagar police station Harinarayan Sharma said.