17-year-old NEET aspirant from Bihar commits suicide in Kota

Kota: In a tragic incident, a 17-year-old NEET aspirant from Nalanda, Bihar, reportedly died by suicide in Kota, a city known for its coaching centers that prepare students for various competitive exams. The incident occurred on Tuesday, further highlighting the growing pressure on students to perform well in highly competitive exams like the NEET (National Eligibility-Entrance Test).

According to PTI, the young student, identified as Harshraj Shankar, had been staying in Kota for the past few months to prepare for the NEET exam with the aim of securing admission to a prestigious medical college. The aspirant was found hanging from an iron rod inside his hostel room in Jawahar Nagar on Tuesday, the police said.

The grieving family of a medical aspirant who was found hanging in his hostel room here has appealed to the Rajasthan government to address the issue of student suicides in the coaching hub which has reported nine such deaths since January.

“It is a slap on the state government’s face that we leave our children in Kota to study but take back their bodies,” said the 17-year-old NEET aspirant’s uncle Rajiv Yadav, who spoke to reporters outside a mortuary.

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The body was discovered by the police who were called by the hostel caretaker after Shankar did not respond to repeated knocking on the door.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot. However, according to the caretaker, “Sorry” was found written on the book shelf rack.

The boy had been preparing for the medical entrance exam in a coaching institute here since April last year, they said.

The boy's father, uncle and some family members reached Kota on Wednesday to claim the body after a post-mortem.

“The government should address the issue. (CM) Sharmaji’s government should ensure that no such tragedy happens in future,” the uncle said.

“Our boy was good at studies and had been taking coaching in Kota to crack NEET,” he said.

The police said they have lodged an FIR section 194 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and launched a probe.

Meanwhile, hostel caretaker Lokesh Sharma said the boy lived in the hostel with three of his cousins.

After checking into the hostel in April, the boy got an iron rod fixed inside his room to exercise pull-ups, the caretaker said.

Since the fans in the hostel room were equipped with “anti-suicide devise”, the boy used the iron rod to hang himself, he said.

This is the ninth student suicide this year that took place in the city famous for its being a coaching hub. Six coaching students -- five JEE, one NEET -- killed themselves in January alone.

Seventeen coaching students died by suicide in Kota in 2024. In 2023, the number stood at 26.

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