A 17-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room in Rajasthan’s Kota, the third case of suspected suicide in the last two weeks by students taking classes at this coaching hub, reported The Indian Express.
This is the nineteenth case of suspected suicide so far this year by coaching students preparing for competitive examinations in Kota.
Police said that the deceased, a resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, was found in his room on Thursday evening.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Shivraj Singh on Friday said that the teenager had come to Kota around a year ago and was preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at a coaching institute.
Singh said that his father had come to meet him and stayed with him for five days before leaving for home on Thursday afternoon. The boy took the extreme step only a few hours after his father left.
He had reportedly had dinner at the hostel’s mess and returned to his room around 7 PM on Thursday. His father, who was on his way to Azamgarh by train, asked the hostel’s caretaker to check on his son when did not respond to his repeated calls. When the caretaker went to check, he saw the student hanging from the ceiling fan of his room, Singh added.
The cop said the preliminary probe suggests that he didn’t have any friends in Kota, and did not talk much.
“After the death, the father, who was midway to Uttar Pradesh, returned. We handed over the body over to him,” said the DSP.
Additional SP Thakur Chandrasheel, in-charge of the Student Cell in Kota told IE on Friday that 19 suicides have so far taken place in Kota, and he pinned the main reasons to be competitive environment and study pressure for the rising cases.
According to data with the district administration, 20 students had died by suicide in 2018 while the figure was 18 in 2019. However, in 2020 and 2021, there were no suicides in the city, as students had left for their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.