Within four hours, two NEET aspirants allegedly died by suicide in two separate incidents in Rajasthan’s Kota on Sunday, taking the total number of suicides in Kota to 22 this year.
In the first incident, a 17-year-old student, a native of Maharashtra’s Latur district, jumped from the sixth floor of his coaching institute’s building in Jawahar Nagar at around 3.15 pm, minutes after walking out of a room on the third floor of the institute after taking a test.
The institute’s staff rushed Kasle to a hospital but he succumbed on the way, Vigyan Nagar Circle Officer (CO) Dharmveer Singh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
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At around 7 pm, another student, a native of Bihar, who had also written the test, hanged himself in his rented flat. It was believed he feared achieving low marks in the test and hence, took the extreme step.
According to the police, no suicide notes were recovered from either of the students’ rooms.
Meanwhile, District Collector OP Bunkar on Sunday instructed the coaching institute to not conduct any tests in the coming two months. He also directed the institute to install anti-suicide devices in all fans inside rooms.
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Further, Bunkar also instructed to allow at least one ‘free day’ to students, when there will be no classes and tests.
These incidents bring the number of suicides to six for this month and 22 for this year. 16 of the cases were reported in the past four months alone.
According to police data, 15 students died by suicide in Kota in 2022, 18 in 2019, 20 in 2018, seven in 2017, 17 in 2016, and 18 in 2015. No suicide took place in 2020 and 2021.