Patna NEET aspirant death: SIT finds antidepressant overdose trail, recovers diary
Patna: In the recent case of the death of a NEET girl aspirant in Patna, the probing Special Investigation Team (SIT) has recently revealed that she had allegedly consumed a large quantity of antidepressant pills before being found unconscious in her hostel room.
On Tuesday, the SIT team visited her family's home in Jehanabad. There, the team found two more empty strips of the drug. However, one of these had already been handed over to the police by his uncle.
According to a TOI media news report, sources said the medicine belonged to her father, who had been taking it for years on a doctor's prescription. On December 27, 2025, when the girl went to her native home with her father, he purchased six new strips of the medicine from a medical shop in Jehanabad. She reportedly returned to her hostel in Patna on January 5 with three of these strips.
Her cell phone's search history from January 5th reportedly showed that she searched for information about the active ingredients of the medication, indicating that she was researching it shortly before the incident. Therefore, police sources said it appears she consumed all three strips she had brought back, leading to severe drug poisoning and causing her to fall into a coma.
Meanwhile, a senior officer said that during intense questioning, her uncle handed over two more empty strips of the medicine. He had initially given only one of the three strips, which the hostel warden had found in the girl's room along with her cellphone on January 9, the same day the FIR was registered at the Chitragupta Nagar police station.
During the investigation, it was revealed that the girl's father had purchased six strips of medicine for ₹350 at 4:24 PM on December 27, and his daughter was with him at the time. We located the driver he had hired that day. The driver told the police that the girl's father had asked him to change the route to buy the medicine. When the driver suggested buying it from another pharmacy, the father said he didn't have a prescription and that the shopkeeper knew him because he regularly bought medicine from that store. Thereafter, the police also questioned the shopkeeper.
The family knew that their father had been taking this medication for a long time, yet they questioned how their daughter obtained the drug without a prescription. This contradicts the family's own knowledge and has puzzled investigators. However, the family alleged that the empty medicine strips were planted there by the warden.
Apart from this, the SIT has also recovered the deceased's personal diary from her hostel room in Patna, which has provided investigators with new insights into the intense emotional and psychological pressures she was under in the months leading up to the death.
Her diary entries describe the pressure of exams, family conflicts, including arguments between her parents and disagreements with her brother, and past relationships. One entry, written about four months ago, explicitly mentioned suicidal thoughts, indicating a long-standing struggle.
Speaking to TOI about the matter, a senior police officer said that the entries in the diary suggest suicide, and some further clues have been obtained from the phone recovered from the victim's uncle. Chats and messages had been deleted from the phone. However, the team has found some leads, which cannot be shared at this time.
Medical Dialogues had reported on the tragic incident. The student was living in a girls' hostel in Patna to prepare for the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET). She was found unconscious in her room on January 6 and, despite medical efforts, died on January 11.
